Fueling the Fire
by beccabandicoot
Summary: A teenage girl is kidnapped by zombies and their necromancer master at a wax museum. She is thrust into the world of magic and must escape in order to save herself and others from their sinister plan.
1. Phil Lynott

Wow. This is SO boring. Why did I even agree to come to this stupid museum? Oh right, because I had nothing better to do. That's just sad. I might be interested if this was a regular art museum but seriously, _wax sculptures?_ How much weirder can you get?

"Come on hun, or the tour will leave without you."

I looked over at my mum with longing in my eyes.

"Oh ok, here's $10" she said handing over the money, "go get an ice-cream or something."

_Meh, good enough_ "thanks mum"

I wondered off looking for some sort of edible sustenance, after turning a few corners I realised I was lost.

"Oh just great, where's the café?

Thinking I recognised one of the more ridiculous looking sculptures I headed towards it only to realise there were more hallways.

"Why does this always happen to me?"

"You're telling me."

"Huh? Who was that?"

"Oh no, I thought you were talking to me."

"What? Who's me?" I turned but the only person near me was the wax sculpture.

"I am in a lot of trouble... but I guess they wouldn't even know since they _forgot_ about me."

Oh my god, I couldn't believe it. The sculpture was talking.

"Must be automated or something."

"Oh uh... yes! Yes I am."

"Wait, how do you understand me then?"

"Uh, I can't."

"Yes you can"

"No I can't"

I read the name plate.

_Phil Lynott - Lead Singer of Thin Lizzy._

_1980 - 1983_

"Are you Phil?"

"No. Well yes I am but uh... I mean... beep end of transmission"

"Right...well uh, I'm Becca" this was so weird, why am I so chill with this? I should be freaking out right now.

"Beeeeeep."

"How are you... You know, alive?"

"I'm not."

"Cut the act, it's pretty obvious you are."

"Ok, I am but if a mortal finds out about me I'll probably be destroyed."

"Why? You won't explode will you?" I took a hesitant step back.

"What? Oh, no. at least I hope not."

"So you haven't answered me. How come you're alive?"

"Well why can't I be? You're alive. I think you're being a little selfish."

"Well of course I'm alive. _I'm_ not made of wax. Now stop stalling and please just explain this to me."

"I uh, we shouldn't even be talking. I have to go now."

"Go where? You're made of wax." I can't believe I'm actually arguing with a statue.

He sighed. Clearly I was getting to him.

"Ok, fine. I _used _to be a door. Well, not a door but I stood _in front_ of the door and let people in and out of the door, so kinda like a door but not an _actual _door."

"Uh... ok. But that still hasn't answered my question."

"Well it was a very special door."

"Wait, was this at the old museum? Where did the door go to? Why were you in front of it? And how can you talk?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"And you answer none of them."

"Ok fine I-"

"HEY!"

I jumped and looked around. A burly security guard was charging towards me.

"Oh uh sorry, I got lost." I looked back at Phil, he was back to being frozen.

"Museums closed."

"Really? Already?"

"Yes. Now get out."

"Ok, sure but one problem, I'm a little lost"

He turned and pointed at a bright neon arrow that said café. "Head that way. The café is right next to the entrance."

How did I miss that?

"Right, thanks."

I waited for him to leave so I could finish talking to the statue but he just stood there watching me. So with a sigh I turned and hurried away. As I rounded the corner I ran into a bad smelling man wearing a long trench coat and hat pulled low over his face, carrying a chilli bin.

He stumbled a little but continued on the way I had come.

"Sorry but I think the museums closed, the guy just-"I gasped.

After his stumble his hat had been knocked loose and I saw his face. It was a sickly green colour and looked partly decomposed, a large chunk of his nose was missing and there were several gashes on his cheek.

I backed away "oh my god."

He quickly pulled his hat back over his face. "I have a serious disease" he said almost automatically.

"I'm so sorry, what disease is it? It's not contagious is it?"

"It's called uh… bad...skin…itis. Yeah."

"Badskinitis?"

"Yes. It was discovered by Dr Badskin."

This wasn't really making any sense but his smell was making me gag so I decided to leave him be.

As I turned to leave I was grabbed by a man in a long black coat.

"Hey lemme go!"

He ignored me. Instead he turned to the idiot with the bad skin.

"What are you doing? I said to make sure the museum was empty first!"

"I thought it was!" he replied.

"Never send a zombie to do a necromancers job" he muttered to himself.

Necromancer? Zombie? He must be joking.

But what little of the man's face I could see under his hood told me he was dead serious.

Oh god. He's not joking. The idiot is a zombie.

"What's going on?" I cried but once again I was ignored as the hooded man searched my pockets and pulled out my cell phone. "I'll be taking this" he said as he slipped it into his coat.

Then he dragged me over to where Phil and I saw his eyes open with surprise at me being captured.

"I thought you were mortal? What are you doing with a necromancer?"

"Not the time Phil" I replied.

"Did you tell them I was still active?"

"I don't even know them!"

The zombie looked confused. "Who is this girl?"

"I don't know but she may be of use to us yet." The hooded man replied.

Now I was scared.

"Look my mum's probably looking for me so I should just-"

"Shut it."

I decided that I didn't like this hooded man.

"Now Phil, you're going to tell us everything you know about the Sanctuary."

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"Yes you do Phil. The Sanctuary, the place where all the important sorcerers come and go. You used to be their door."  
>So that was the door he was talking about.<p>

"I'm no longer connected to the Sanctuary."  
>"My sources tell me otherwise."<p>

"What's going on? I can't see anything!" I muffled cry came from the zombies chilli bin.

"What's in there?" I asked. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder.

"Thrasher! Take me out!"

"Your name is _Thrasher_?" I asked incredulously. "You don't look like a Thrasher."

"Well it hasn't always been Thrasher, that's just my zombie name" he said as he opened the chilli bin. I was all out of gasps by then but what I saw was just too weird. A head. A human head.

It looked at me.

"Who's this?"

"I am the Killer Supreme and I am asking the questions here."

"Actually _I_ am asking the questions here" said the necromancer, he turned to me.

"Who are you?"

"That's the same question" I said.

He glared at me. "If you will be uncooperative then I will be forced to take drastic measures."

This guy was serious. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement in the shadows. I turned but there was no one there. Then suddenly the necromancer flicked his wrist and the shadows moved and formed sharp spears that came hurtling towards me stopping right at my throat.

I screamed. "What is going on!"

He lowered his hood to reveal his face. It had a ridiculous goatee.

"I am Dragonclaw, mighty necromancer and you will obey me."

I know there were dozens of lethal spears at my throat but I couldn't resist.

"Your name is Dragonclaw? Seriously? Did your mother hate you?"

"Watch your tongue girl, now tell us how you know about the link."

"What link? I have absolutely no idea what is going on."

"What is your name?"

"I... I don't think I should tell you."

"So you don't have a name yet."

"What? I have a name"

"Then tell me."

"Sorry my mother told me not to give information to strangers. Especially ones with ridiculous beards."

The daggers pressed into my neck.

"You will tell me _now_"

I thought quickly of a fake name to give him.

"My name is... Uuuh..."

I looked over at one of the sculptures of a busty blonde singer yelling into a mic.

_Samantha Fox_

_(1980 – 2010)_

"I'm Samantha."

"Ok Samantha, now tell me everything you know about this sculpture."

"I don't really know anything ok? I was just lost in the museum and we ended up chatting."

"You were chatting with a sculpture?" asked Thrasher.

"He talked first!"

"Actually you did." Interjected Phil

"Well I didn't know you would answer!"

"So you were talking to yourself?" said Thrasher

"Look I'm not the weird one here. _You're_ a zombie. _You're _a zombie head. And _you_ have a ridiculous name and goatee to match."

"Enough!" roared Dragonclaw.

"If she is useless then maybe we should just dispose of her." The shadow-spears dug deeper into my throat and I felt blood trickle down my neck.

"But she was talking to the statue, maybe she knows something." Said the zombie head.

"Hey, I have a _name _you know, you don't need to keep referring to me as the statue."

The spears receded but stayed hovering at neck level.

"Ok then _Phil,_ tell us everything about the Sanctuary."

"I told you, I'm not connected to them anymore. I was cut off when it was vaporised."

"I don't believe you. I think that you still get some of the messages that they send out." Several more shadow spears appeared, this time pointing at Phil.

"And I only need to know two things. Where is the emergency back entrance and where they are keeping Meloncholia St Claire?"


	2. Roarhaven

It was dark, cold and bumpy. I figured I was in the back of a van. Though that didn't explain the faint jingle I could hear. Poor Phil, he's now a melted wax figure and I'm tied up in a van. I struggled against the ropes that bound my hands while trying to shake off the smelly sack they had stuffed over my head. Personally, I thought the sack was taking things too far but what else could you expect from one and a half zombies and a guy who can control shadows. I thought how worried my mother would be right now, she's probably called the police. The thought that someone would be looking for me gave me some comfort. The car hit a bump and I toppled over, but on the bright side, the sack was off. I looked around. I was in a freezer, and I recognised that jingle, I was in the back of an ice-cream van. I slipped my hands under my feet and started trying to use my mouth to untie the ropes. They slipped off after a minimal amount of work, good thing zombies are no good at tying knots.

Suddenly the van jerked to a stop. I lurched forward.

"We're here, get the girl."

Oh crap. As soon as the doors open I'm making a run for it.

I heard a click and prepared to run. The door opened and Thrasher peered in.

I jumped out knocking him over in the process and ran. I didn't know where I was but I did know that I had to get away. Suddenly a dark tentacle shot out and tripped me. I fell forward and tasted blood.

"Not so fast Samantha." I was hauled to my feet by rough hands.

"Now you _will_ follow us and you _won't _try to escape again."

He let me go and started walking. Really? Just a telling off? I turned and ran again.

Another dark tentacle but this time I was expecting it, I jumped but another knocked me in the air and I spun back to the ground.

Ow, I am gonna be sore tomorrow, screw that, I'm sore _now._

"You're name isn't Samantha is it?"

"Of course it is." I replied. How did he know?

"No. It's not." He turned to Thrasher. "Give me the rope, you obviously aren't competent enough to tie up a _teenager._"

Thrasher handed him the rope and my hands were retied, this time much more tightly.

I looked over at the car. It _was_ an ice-cream van. With a large plastic penguin on the roof, I would have laughed had I not been in a life threatening situation.

"We're going to your bar." Said Dragonclaw.

"Uh actually it's not my bar anymore. They don't really like me there you see" came a muffled reply from Thrashers chilli bin.

"But it's closed down and no one else is there you idiot."

"Uh I'm only 16, so I think I'm too young to go to a bar. Maybe some other time" I said

His response was to shove me forward.

"Hey, hey not so rough."

"Shut it"

"Why? We're in public I should just yell for help." I looked around the deserted street and saw no one. My heart sank.

"Shut it or I'll get the sack again."

I fell silent, I wanted to see what was happening, and that sack stank really badly. Instead I looked around to try to figure out where they had brought me. I saw a single sign._ Roarhaven._ Great, I have never even heard of this town.

We came to an old boarded up bar and I was ushered inside and tied to a chair.

"You know the police are probably looking for me, my mum is really overprotective so she probably called a squat team or something." I said hoping I sounded threatening.

Dragonclaw pulled my cell phone out of his pocket.

"Actually you texted your mum and said you met up with Twiggy and are staying at her house tonight, she wasn't very happy about it but said it was fine."

My heart sunk in my chest "How do you know who Twiggy is?"

"I looked through your contacts. I figured the one with a ridiculous nickname would be a close friend."

Damn it. He's thought of everything.

"I know what you're thinking, and trust me I have thought of everything. Covering my trail is a... speciality of mine."

Crap, can he really read my thoughts?

I started to insult him in my head but he didn't show any sign of hearing what I was thinking so I figured that he couldn't.

"Ok then, but why have you brought me here? I'm not really of much use to you."

"Oh but you are, you see, our dear departed friend Phil spoke to you and I believe he told you some valuable information. You aren't leaving until I know what it was."

"I'm serious ok. He didn't tell me anything, he was very uncooperative."

"But you have seen too much, I can't let you run to the authorities."

"And tell them what? That a magic man and his zombie friends kidnapped me? Like they would believe that."

"We sorcerers have spies in your mortal emergency department for occasions such as this; I can't let them know of my plan."

"And what is your plan?" I asked.

"You know too much already. Thrasher! Take her to the back room and make sure she does not escape."

"But she's tied to a chair" said Thrasher

Dragonclaw sighed

"Untie her, _and then_ take her to the back room. And make sure you lock the door. We can't have another escape attempt now can we?"

Thrasher moved behind me and began untying the ropes; I felt something drop into my hands.

"My finger fell off" he whined

"Ew!' I yelped and dropped it.

Thrasher sighed and slipped his finger into his pocket "that's my third finger today, I'm running out of glue."

Once untied I was lead to the back of the bar and through a short hallway.

"So you're not a sorcerer?" Thrasher asked

"No, I'm not. I didn't even know magic existed."

"But you knew to give a fake name. How capricious of you."

"Capricious?"

'Impulsive, unpredictable."

"Well why didn't you just say that instead of _capricious._ But why was me giving a fake name so… capricious?"

"You know, because there is power in a name or something, I don't really know, I was a regular person before Scapegrace- I mean, the Zombie King bit me."

"The zombie king?" I said, holding back a laugh. "He's not much of a king"

"My master is almighty" he said angrily.

"Ok, ok whatever you say."

"Thrasher! Stop talking to the prisoner!" Dragonclaw yelled from the bar.

"You're not going to tie me up again are you?"

"No I'm lousy at knots, besides you can't escape" he said reassuringly.

"Gee thanks."

Thrasher locked the door and I was left alone. I looked around the room; there was a bed next to a small wooden desk with a dusty old lamp on it and a moth eaten rug on the floor. There was only one small window that was too high for me to see out of. I went to the door and listened, I could hear muffled voices. The door creaked and seemed unstable, but if I kicked it down they would hear the crash and I would just be recaptured. I pulled the drawer over to the window and climbed up. The window was barred and looked out into an alleyway. I was trapped.

Bored, I searched through the drawer on the desk. Inside was mostly dust, but in the second drawer I found an old book, I pulled it out and read the title.

_Basic Elemental Magic_

_Volume 3_

So with nothing else to do I sat on the bed and began to read.


	3. The Plan

I did it, I can't believe I did it. At least I _think_ I did it. I'm sure I saw the dust bunny move. I had read the summaries of _Basic Elemental Magic Volumes 1 and 2_ and I think I got the idea. So I placed a piece of fluff I had found on the ground on the desk and tried to move it using the air. I tried again, clearing my mind and concentrating really hard. I flexed my palm and the dust bunny shot over the desk and onto the floor. I was stunned. I can't believe it moved. No, it can't have been magic, it must have been a breeze or I breathed on it or something. I need to know for sure I searched the room for something that I know can't be moved by a slight breeze.

After about 10 minutes of searching I found a small nail under the bed. I placed it on the desk and tried again. _Calm your mind, and find the connections in the air._ The book had said. I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. Held out my hand and flexed my palm, the nail flew across the desk just like the dust bunny had.

"Oh My God!" Did that just happen? There was no other explanation for it.

"What's going on in there?"

Oops I said that out loud. I quickly stowed the book under the bed as the door opened and Dragonclaw came in.

I sat on the bed and tried to look innocent.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, uh... a bird flew in the window but it's gone now."

He looked at me suspiciously but said nothing more about it. "We'll be leaving in the morning."

"Where are you going?"

"We. You're coming with us."

"What? Why?"

"Because we need a hostage."

"What? No way."

"You have no say in the matter."

I sighed; this was getting to be really irritating. "Are we going to the Sanctuary?"

"How do you know that?" he said sharply.

"Well my first clue was when you asked Phil where the emergency exit at the Sanctuary is."

He glared at me.

"But he never told you, and you melted him. So how are you going to get in?"

"You leave that to me."

"I really hope this plan doesn't involve me."

And then he left with a swish of his cloak. I'm sure he does that on purpose.

"Keep an eye on her" he murmured to Thrasher as he passed him.

"Yes master" he said then bowed low and stood by the door, facing me. I cringed a little at his smell.

I waited till Dragonclaw had left and then turned to Thrasher.

"So what's the plan?"

"He said you were not to be told."

"Didn't you just hear him? I'm coming to. I'm a part of it. I think I should be briefed."

"Oh, well uh... I don't think I should tell you. If you needed to be told he would have told you."

"So why is he your master? I thought that was Scapegrace?" I said suddenly changing the subject.

"Oh well of course I am loyal to the Zombie King because it was he who turned me. I'm his right hand man" he said smugly.

"He doesn't have a right hand" I said under my breath "And what about Dragonclaw?"

"He is a necromancer, master of death magic, because I am dead I am under his control."

"Like a slave?" I asked.

"No, I wish to serve him."

"Well you're not doing a very good job of it."

"What? Why?"

"You still haven't told me the plan. You don't want your master to go into the operation with a team who doesn't know what they are doing."

"You're right."

Wow, he is thick.

"So? You gonna tell me?"

"Well he will send me out with the Zombie King Scapegrace to recruit more zombies. Then while we storm the Sanctuary you and Master Dragonclaw sneak in the back"

Oh my god, they are going to turn people into zombies? I struggled to keep my voice steady.

"But I thought he didn't know where the back entrance was?"

"He didn't but he has consulted with his source and found another way in."

"But why does he need me?"

"He didn't want to take you because you would slow him down, but he needs you so Mistress Meloncholia can take your energy."

"What? Take my energy?"

"You know, draw your life out to strengthen her."

I held back a silent scream, he's only keeping me so he can kill me later.

I heard a noise and turned to see Dragonclaw standing in the doorway, a furious look on his face.

"You idiot! How could you tell her the plan!" he screamed at Thrasher

Thrasher looked scared and confused. If he wasn't involved in the plan of my death I would have felt sorry for him. Then he looked at me.

"You tricked me" he snarled.

I was still too stunned to speak.

He took a step towards me.

"No!" screamed Dragonclaw. "We need her alive!"

Thrasher stepped back and with a last glare at me left with Dragonclaw, locking the door behind them.

I sat in silence. I need to escape. And I need to do it soon.


	4. The Sanctuary

I woke that morning refreshed, energized and terrified. As I lay in bed I hoped the whole thing had been a weird dream but I opened my eyes to see that I was still in the musty old room of the bar. I had been up most of the night practising what little magic I knew, hoping it would be enough. I checked myself over and found several large bruises but nothing I wouldn't live through.

I had a plan, but my lack of knowledge of this magical world meant it was risky but I was headed to my death and I was desperate I had to take my chances.

Unsure of the time I climbed up the desk to look out the window, there was little light and with my limited view I couldn't really see much, but I knew it was early morning. My stomach growled loudly, I realised how hungry I was. I really wished I had made it to the café instead of stopping to talk to a _statue_. What is wrong with me?

I jumped off the desk and went back to sit on the bed and wait for my captors.

Suddenly Dragonclaw appeared in the middle of the room in a swirl of shadows.

I jumped back in surprise "you can teleport?"

"It's not teleporting, it's shadow walking." He threw a wrapped sandwich onto the bed next to me.

"Eat. Then be ready to leave."

"Sure just let me put on my make-up" I said sarcastically

"I may need you alive but I don't need you unharmed" he threatened.

I looked at the sandwich "Thrasher didn't touch that did he?"

"Thrasher is out recruiting."

I suddenly felt a pang of guilt for all the people about to be bitten.

"That was from a nearby store. Now eat."

"Ok ok, because I am in _such_ a rush to die."

He glared at me and the shadows in the room quivered menacingly.

And then against everything my mother taught me I took a bite. It was actually pretty good. But maybe that was just because I hadn't eaten in about 15 hours.

After I had eaten, Dragonclaw brought in rope and tied my hands.

"Is this really necessary?"

"Yes, so that you can't escape."

"You're a full grown man who can control shadows and I'm a 16 year old girl"

"You have a point."

"Besides wouldn't it be suspicious if we were seen?"

"You're right" He agreed "but if you try to run, you won't live to regret it."

"I won't live either way" I muttered.

We left the bar and I started over to the ice-cream van.

"Not so fast. We're walking. It's not too far from here."

Oh no, part of my plan involved trying to crash the van.

"Really? You're secret hideout is so close to the government area you're going to break into?"

"Start walking"

I did, keeping a slow pace to give me time to think. What do I do? If the zombies are successful then they will occupy all the security, but they can't be that stupid. Wouldn't _all_ entrances be guarded?

"Hurry up" he said gruffly giving me a shove.

Ok think what do we know? Not much. But I can move small objects, but not enough to do any real damage; I can also make a spark but can't sustain it. I didn't have any water to work with and didn't even get up to the part about earth.

I heard a scream; we must be near the zombie horde. "This way" he said tugging me off the footpath and into the forest. We continued walking for a few minutes, him holding my arm firmly. Until we came to a small shed.

We entered and I looked around. There was nothing in here but a small pile of hay. But Dragonclaw continued towards they hay and dug around until he opened a trap door in the floor.

"Go." He said nodding towards the door.

I descended the steps down into the earth and came to a long dark tunnel.

"Not too different from the supplies entrance to the Temple" Dragonclaw mused.

I didn't get it.

The tunnel wasn't well lit and we walked in silence for a few minutes, then I realised the ground was sloping upwards and we turned a corner to a single lantern hanging on the wall next to a heavy looking door. Dragonclaw sent a wave of shadows at it and it crashed open.

"I bet someone heard that" I said

Dragonclaw stopped and took out the rope. He tied it around my waist and held the end like a lead.

Then we entered the Sanctuary and I began to panic. He started walking briskly while I lagged behind trying to find a way out, a hiding place, a security guard, anything. I was getting desperate. I felt my pockets, a safety pin! Suddenly a plan came to mind.

Dragonclaw gave a tug on the rope and I stumbled forward.

_Ok clear my mind and relax._ I flexed my palm and the safety pin shot forward, then I twisted my wrist and it hit him in the side of the neck.

"Aaargh!" He turned to see where the pin had come from and I took my chance I tugged the rope out of his hand and ran for it. The Sanctuary was a maze of corridors which I used to my advantage took corners and finally saw an open door which I ducked into. I held my back to the wall trying to catch my breath. I waited nothing. I peered around the door and saw no one. I lost him.

Now what? Do I wait here for someone to find me? Or should I go and try to get out? In this maze I would probably just get even more lost.

I decided to wait it out for a while and then go find someone who is hopefully on my side.

I checked the room I was in. It looked like a meeting room. There was a long table surrounded my chairs and at the head were three large chairs. I'm guessing the Sanctuary has three leaders.

There was an old tapestry on the wall but other than that the walls were bare.

I sat in one of the chairs to think what to do. In just two days I have been kidnapped, met zombies and learnt magic, and now I'm in a strange building in a town I've never heard of. And the worst part is, I'm all alone and no one knows where I am.

A loud boom broke the silence as a door crashed open. I instantly dove under the table and hoped they didn't see me.

"What do you mean _gone?_"

"I mean what I mean, she's gone"

Two pairs of feet came into view, one with very good taste in shoes.

"But she's been in comatose! And she was in a maximum security facility there were 2 Cleavers at the door!"

"They were fending off the zombies sir, they did so but there were so many that they were... occupied."

"Do we know who could have done this? It must have been a necromancer"

"We believe so, but can't be certain. It's not safe to jump to conclusions."

"We should call in Skulduggery and Valkyrie, have they been notified?"

"Not yet sir, should I..?"

"No, no I'll do it."

"As you wish Elder Bespoke."

The man named Elder Bespoke left the room and the remaining pair of feet started pacing the floor, they paused, I held my breath. But then another pair of feet entered through the door. I could tell this one was a woman by the click of her heels.

"Are you sure it is wise to meet here of all places?"

"Ghastly?" she asked

"Gone to inform Pleasant and Cain."

"As I thought he would, does he suspect?"

"He believes it to be a necromancer, and he is correct, but he and Dragonclaw are both unaware of the plan. Dragonclaw is, as you know, so incompetent. I wanted no contact but he failed to recover the information he needed."

"Yes but the deed is done and Dragonclaw, with his many flaws is still well adept at covering all traces."

"But Pleasant and Cain will figure it out and pursue him, and when they do we will act."

"But what of Meloncholia? She is still in comatose and the necromancers have no way to revive her. Without her they are no threat."

"I have a plan to get what they need to them, and she is no real threat as Doctor Nye has undone most of the symbols carved into her, but even then she is still enough of a challenge for Pleasant and Cain and so will provide a perfect distraction."

"Excellent."

"I must go, the zombies are being dealt with."

"I will send word when to act."

And then they both left. I sat there under the table and thought about what I had just heard. Pleasant and Cain, they _sound_ like the good guys, and these two, like traitors. But how can I be sure? I need to tell someone, but I have to make sure I tell the right people.

How did I get so involved in all this?


	5. Pleasant and Cain

Skulduggery strode into the main hall with Valkyrie trailing behind him.

"State your name and business here." Said the administrator, a short fat man perched on a thin stool that looked ready to collapse.

Valkyrie stared at him.

"Seriously? We've saved the world, what... 4 times, and he's the only living skeleton in existence. You'd think you'd know us by now."

"It's our policy" he replied.

"It's ok Valkyrie" Skulduggery said in his velvety voice. "Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, here by order of the Grand Mage, Elder Bespoke." He said officially.

The administrator checked his papers. Yes, I see you have been summoned. This way please."

"But you knew who we were right?" Skulduggery asked.

"Of, of course" He stuttered.

"And you know that we are amazing detectives?"

"Um, well yes."

"Good." He said, smiling. "It's nice to know we're still famous."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes at him and followed the confused administrator down the hall to where Ghastly waited for them.

"What's going on Ghastly? You barely said anything over the phone and everyone here is in a panic."

"Meloncholia is gone."

Valkyries head snapped up. "What? How? I thought she was in a permanent coma?"

"She was. And should still be. But the Sanctuary was broken into during an attack by a zombie horde."

"Zombie horde? It must have been Scapegrace… but last time I saw him he was just a head." Said Valkyrie.

"How did they get past the guards?" Skulduggery asked.

"Apparently the guards were occupied with the horde."

"That seems unlikely; Cleavers can deal with a few zombies without any trouble."

"Yes, they _should_ have been fine. It does seem suspicious that they were occupied long enough for the culprits to enter through the magically sealed door and take her."

"Take us to the scene" Skulduggery asked.

Just as they were about to leave a girl stumbled through the door and fell into the room.

Valkyrie instantly prepared for trouble but Skulduggery just stood there calmly.

The girl stood up and looked around "I... uh I don't..."

"Who's this?" Skulduggery asked.

Finally she saw Skulduggery. "You're a skeleton" she said.

"Yes, I've noticed."

"That's um... that's…. nice."

Valkyrie giggled. "That's a new one."

Skulduggery cocked his head. "Who are you? And how did you get here?"

"Yes I'm wondering that too" Ghastly added.

The girl stood up. "I'm uh... Sam. Yeah, call me Sam."


	6. Interrogation

As I sat at the table in the interrogation room I realised I had been staring at Skulduggery.

"You're a skeleton." I repeated.

"Yes. We've covered that." He replied.

"Why don't you just fall apart? And how do you talk?"

"We're actually here to question _you_" interjected the dark haired girl. I figured she must be Valerie; No. there was a k in it. Valkyrie that was it.

"Ok. Shoot"

"First off." Skulduggery said. "How do you not know me? I'm kind of a big shot around here."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes.

"I uh... I only found out about magic yesterday..."

"What?" Valkyrie said, surprised. "You're a mortal?"

"Well actually no, as of last night."

"I'm confused" she said.

"Me too."

"So you can do magic?"

I flexed my palm at a pen sitting on the desk. Nothing happened.

Well that was embarrassing.

I cleared my mind and took a deep breath, Valkyrie was watching me curiously, I couldn't really tell where Skulduggery was looking as he had no eyes, but I'm pretty sure he was watching me too.

I flexed my palm again and this time the pen shot across the desk.

"That's really all I can do." I said sheepishly.

"That's quite impressive for someone who has only been in this world for a day." Valkyrie said.

"I agree, especially since it took _you_ a few months before you could do anything" Skulduggery added.

"Not important right now"

"And at least _she_ didn't faint when she met me."

"Can we just get on with the interrogation?" Valkyrie snapped "Why don't you tell us everything that has happened to you since yesterday."

I decided to trust them; after all they hadn't threatened or hurt me so far.

I relayed everything that had happened to me, the museum, the zombies, Dragonclaw, his plan and finally the Sanctuary, but right before I told them about the meeting room and what I had overheard, I paused.

"Is that it? Everything up to when you met us?"

"Well, actually no. But I'm not really sure about this last part. Like I said, I only found out about this world yesterday."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, once I had got away from Dragonclaw I hid in some sort of meeting room, and I overheard some people talking."

"What did they say?"

"Well I didn't hear any names except for Ghastly and that was after he had left. Then a woman came in and they were planning... something. They mentioned your names. I think the man works for the Sanctuary, but he's not on your side."

"A traitor? In the sanctuary? How can you be sure?"

"Tell us everything they said." Asked Skulduggery.

After telling them exactly what had happened, Skulduggery sat back in his chair and looked thoughtful.

"This is really important, I'm going to go find Ghastly so we can name this man, as for the woman... I'm not sure who she could be."

"It sounds like they are planning something big and are using the death bringer as a cover up. Do you think they are trying to bring back the faceless ones?" Valkyrie asked

"Could be, but let's not jump to conclusions. Stay here with Sam."

I looked at Valkyrie, she mumbled something that sounded like 'babysitting' under her breath.

Skulduggery left and she turned to me.

"You know, it's not safe in this world."

"Trust me, I know. I've already been kidnapped and sent to have my life sucked out, and it's only my second day."

"Exactly so if you want to get out, now's your chance. You have talent, I'll admit but if this isn't what you want then you should just go home right now."

"Are you kidding? There's no way I'm backing out! My life was so boring before but now... this world is amazing. And I think I have proven that I can handle it."

Valkyrie sighed, "I had a feeling you would be that way. I was the same. But if you _are_ going to stay in this world there are some things you need to know."

"I'm all ears."

"First of all, you need to take a name. If anyone knows your given name they can control you, you're not safe."

"Done."

"What?"

"My real name isn't actually Sam..."

"Oh, well great! Is that the name you're going to go with?"

I thought about it a bit "yeah maybe, do I need a last name as well?"

"Kinda, but think about it, you may change your mind and decide to leave this world."

"Never."

She smiled. "Second of all, you can't reveal magic to mortals."

"Right, that makes sense. I just have one question."

"What is it?"

"I'm not exactly skilled in the uh, magical arts. Where can I learn it? Is there like a school or do I need a teacher..?"

"A school?" she laughed. "Listen; there are two types of sorcerers. Elemental and Adepts, Elementals control the elements, air, water, fire and earth. Adepts have a different type of magic, like necromancy or teleportation."

"So what are you?"

"I'm kind of dabbling at the moment... between elemental and necromancy."

"Really? You can be both?"

"No. later on, at what is called The Surge, I'll have to choose one or the other."

"So where can I learn magic?"

"Hmmm… I'm not really sure where _you_ could. I learn elemental magic from skulduggery and I used to have a necromancer teacher but we uh, part ways."

My shoulders sagged. "So you don't know anyone who could teach me?"

"Not really, sorry."

"Why can't _you_ teach me?"

She looked stunned. "I uh, I'm pretty busy most days and I don't think I'm good enough to take on a student..."

"Come on... _pleeeeeeeeeeeease?"_ I made my eyes as big and as puppy like as possible.

"Well… I don't know, maybe a few lessons. But I' not promising anything."

"Yes!" I jumped out of my chair "Thank you! This is so cool!"

"Don't get too excited, I said maybe."

"Right. Of course." I sat down again.

"What about your parents? Do they know where you are?"

"Dragonclaw texted my mum and said I was staying at a friend's house, and he's still got my phone."

"We'll take you home after Skulduggery meets with Ghastly."

We waited for another few minutes until Skulduggery came back into the room with Ghastly behind him.

"Well?" asked Valkyrie. "Do we have a name?"

"Not really, turns out Ghastly spoke with dozens of people all over the Sanctuary after the zombie attack."

"Which room was it in?" Ghastly asked me.

"A big room with a large table, there were three big chairs at one end."

"We have dozens of rooms with tables and chairs."

"Do you know where the room was?" Valkyrie asked helpfully.

"Uh… no. While I was running from Dragonclaw I wasn't exactly paying attention to where I was going. I just wanted to get away."

"Well you can't blame her." Valkyrie added. "This place is like a maze."

"Could we maybe take her around to every room to see if she recognises anything?"

"It would be quicker to just take her to everyone I've spoken to, to see if she recognises _them_."

"Ok." Said Skulduggery.

"What?" Said Ghastly

"We'll do that."

"I was just kidding, but I guess so, if we have to." He then turned to me "Do your parents know anything?" he asked.

"No, like I said, Dragonclaw took my phone and told them I'm staying at a friend's."

He turned to Skulduggery, "Take her home and return back here immediately. We have a lot to do."

"Come on" Valkyrie said to me "But first we'll get rid of that bruise on your forehead."

I pressed on my forehead and felt a throbbing pain. I hadn't even realised that was there.

"Oh ok." I followed Valkyrie to a bathroom where she pulled out a small yellow rock.

"What's that?" I asked curiously.

"This is a life-saver. Trust me."

She filled a sink with warm water and dropped the rock in it, it immediately began to bubble, then she dipped a cloth in it and gave it to me.

"Just hold it against your head."

After about 5 minutes of that, she took the cloth back off me and I looked in the mirror. The bruise was gone, I poked the spot where it had been and it didn't hurt at all.

"Wow. That was pretty cool. I thought you were just going to give me some cover-up or something."

She smiled at me. "Come on."

The Bentley stopped on the corner of my street. Skulduggery looked back at me from the driver's seat. He had done some sort of magic earlier where he touched his collarbone and a face appeared over his skull. Though it was still weird to know he was a skeleton under all that skin, then I realised that so was I and everyone else in the world.

"Now remember, Dragonclaw has your phone which means he has access to all your contacts and any other information in there like address' and dates, so you need to call up whatever phone company you're with to block your phone and stop him from getting to you."

"Right. Gotcha."

"OK, we'll call for you if we need more information, we'll also need you to identify the man, and we'll probably have someone keep an eye on you in case Dragonclaw decides to show up."

My heart gave a small jump in my chest. Would he really come to my house? What would mum do?

"Ok, thanks. I should probably go now."

Reluctantly I left the car. And watched it drive away. Hoping that that this wasn't the end of my time in this world.


	7. Kidnapped again

I woke up that morning exhausted as if I had run a marathon, I crawled out of bed and dragged myself to the shower, letting the hot water fall over my head... I looked down and saw a large bruise on my hip and suddenly my face broke out into a huge grin. So it wasn't a dream, it was all real. I had actually been kidnapped by zombies and met a living skeleton.

I got out of the shower and changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt. I relaxed my mind and stared at an eraser on my desk. _Think about the connection. _I held out my arm and flexed my palm. The eraser zoomed across my desk until it collided with a schoolbook and bounced to the floor.

I'm still buzzing over this new found power. I had also read the chapter on fire manipulation but hadn't attempted it yet.

"Might as well try it." I thought aloud. I clicked my fingers and tried to summon a spark.

I saw a brief flash but the shock of fire in my hand startled me and I quickly shook it out, a small cloud of smoke rose from my hand. But it didn't feel hot, just a little warm. I'll try again, but this time I won't chicken out.

I cleared my mind and held out my hands, preparing to try again. But at that moment there was a knock on my bedroom door.

"Come in." I said, hastily wiping my hand on my jeans.

Mum poked her head round the door.

"Hey hun, we're just going out for a bit with Jake. Be back soon."

"Ok, see ya."

She went to leave but paused. My heart froze, did she smell the smoke?

"I don't know how many times I've told you to make your bed in the morning."

I breathed a sigh of relief, "right, will do. Bye mum"

After she left I tied my hair back and went to the kitchen for breakfast. While I ate I tried to conjure a flame but could still only get a small spark.

"I need to clear my head, maybe I should go to the park." Mum had taken Jake, our crazy dog with her so I was able to relax and walk at my own pace.

When I got there I could only see two other people walking their dog on the far side of the park. I walked over to the deserted playground and sat on a swing, trying to clear my mind.

There was no one around so I tried again to create a flame, but still only a spark appeared. I sighed and started to gently swing back and forth. I thought about everything that had happened in the past 2 days. I thought about what Valkyrie had said, about my taken name.

I liked Sam, but I still needed another name. While I sat there I didn't notice the man in the black coat sneaking up behind me, at least not until he grabbed me and put a cloth over my mouth.

_It smells like chloroform.  
><em>Then I blacked out.


	8. Escape

I regained consciousness not long after, I was sitting in a chair and my hands were bound behind me. It was dark and smelly. I groaned, _not the sack again._ I wriggled my head around trying to get it off but it was suddenly yanked from my head.

"Ow! You pulled some of my hair."

"Oh sorry."

I looked up at my captor, "Thrasher?"

"I'm not allowed to talk to you."

"You just did."

He ignored me and turned away. I noticed that his ear was glued on upside down.

I knew that Thrasher was terrible at tying knots so I began trying to undo the ropes that bound my hands; unfortunately they were very well tied. I thought about trying to set them on fire but that would probably result in me being badly burned. While I was considering my other options, Dragonclaw strode purposefully into the room, his beard as ridiculous as ever.

"Hello Bison, good to see you again."

He looked at me curiously. "I don't recall me ever telling you my first name."

_Oops. Skulduggery had told me that._ "Uh… Thrasher told me?"

"What? No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"Did not"

"Did too."

"Enough!" Dragonclaw roared "It doesn't matter!"

"So why did you kidnap me again? Did you miss my company?"

He sneered at me and I noticed a small plaster on his neck where I had stabbed him with the pin. I couldn't help but smile.

"You won't be smiling when we're through with you. My associates have planned to send me what I need to awaken Meloncholia and then you'll be sorry."

"So your plan was a success then, good job. I don't see why you need me anymore though, so if you just show me the door-"

"Oh but we still have use for you. Have you forgotten that I planned to give your life energy to her?"

"You don't want my life energy; I've been told I have a really dingy aura."

"There is also another reason. I'm not happy with the trouble you have caused me." He strode over to me and grabbed my hair, pulling my head back and forcing me to look him in the eyes. "I will have my revenge."

I would have kicked him had my feet not been tied to the chair legs, so with no other alternative I spat on him. Angered he pushed me back and I toppled over, landing on my hands that were still tied behind my back. _Ow._ He looked down at me. "I'll be glad to be rid of you. As if I don't get enough trouble from real sorcerers, now I'm stuck having to deal with a _teenager_"

"Listen, Bison. As much as I hate you and your goatee, I'm saying this for your own good. You should just give up with whatever you're doing. It's not going to end well for you."

Dragonclaw kicked my ribs, sending a stab of pain up my side and then left the room without a word, locking the door behind him.

I groaned in pain. I rolled over onto my side to take my weight off my hands and then looked around for something to cut through these ropes. Nothing.

I wriggled around to check behind me and saw a rusty nail sticking out of the wall… on the other side of the room. _It'll have to do._ So I began wriggling, crawling and sliding over to the nail, it took longer than I thought it would. When I finally reached it I pushed my back up against the wall and moved back and forth, using the nail to saw through the ropes. I gave myself a few scratches but finally managed to weaken the ropes enough to pull them apart. Then after untying my legs I began searching for an escape. I realised that we weren't in the bar, _Of course not, they probably know that I told the Sanctuary where they were hiding_. I was in a small room, there was a bed in the corner and a set of drawers. , I searched them but they were empty. I went over to the window and looked out, all I saw were trees. Not much to go on there. The window didn't open though, I would have to break it. But then they would hear the crash. I went over to the door and listened, When I was certain they no one was in earshot I took the blanket off the bed and wrapped it around my hand so I wouldn't cut myself, then I punched the window as hard as I could. But the glass didn't break. I tried again but all I got was a sore hand. I lifted my leg and kicked but still nothing. _Tough glass._ _I need something heavy._ I pulled out a drawer and tested it's weight. _It'll do._ Then with all my strength, I heaved it over my head and threw it at the window. The glass shattered and fell to my feet with a crash. I heard a yell and noises from the door so without a backward glance I jumped out the window and ran into the trees.


	9. Finding Sorrows

I'm tired, sore and alone, in a forest, with no idea where I am. Maybe I hadn't thought this through. I guess Thrasher was right. I am capricious. But at least I got away from Dragonclaw. _He's not very good at his job_. Now I had to get out of this forest and find my way home. _For all I know I'm going in circles and I'll end up back where I started._ I thought about leaving marks so I know if I'm circling or not. _But that would just make it easier for Dragonclaw to find me._ I sat down on a large rock to think about my next move. I'm sure I'm far from Dragonclaw but he heard the crash and probably sent Thrasher to find me, but he's slow so I have time to decide what to do next. _I guess the only thing to do is keep walking until I come across a trail._

I reluctantly stood back up and, ignoring my aching feet, continued walking. It took almost an hour before I finally found a small path worn down by hikers in the grass. Relieved, I began to follow the trail and eventually came to a road at the edge of the forest. A car drove past, sending up a cloud of dust behind it. I followed the road until I came across a small farm house. _Maybe they can help me._ So, turning down the driveway I made my way toward the house and knocked on the front door.

"Hello?"

No answer. I tried again, but there was still no response. I walked around to the back of the house hoping to find someone and was shocked by what I saw. The ground was torn up and several trees had been knocked over and some burnt, the backside of the house was also destroyed and crumbling. Grass and weeds crept up amongst the rubble that lay scattered around the area. _This place looks like a battlefield. There must have been a serious earthquake or something._ I surveyed the landscape and saw two figures in the distance, a woman and child. _Thank God, maybe they could help me._ I began making my way over to them and suddenly stopped. The smaller one who I thought to be a child was actually an adult. She was bent over in pain and clutched her side where a dark stain seeped through her dress. I crouched low to hide myself and crept forward, hiding behind a large rock. The woman's long black hair covered her face, and when she lifted her head I gasped. She was beautiful. As soon as I saw her face I instantly wanted to rush to her aid. But I fought the urge and remained where I was. The other woman laughed and I adjusted my position to see her. She was also stunningly beautiful. I was amazed by both of them. She looked down at her companion and laughed,

"Oh China. Why did you come here?"

I froze. I recognized that voice.

"Isn't it obvious Eliza? I wanted my shoes back."

Eliza laughed. "Those old heels?"

"I happen to be quite fond of them."

"What's the real reason you came, apart from the obvious murder attempt."  
>"I have nothing left. You destroyed it all."<p>

"Ah. Revenge. Isn't that a bit petty for you, China?"

China stood up and I saw blood trickling down her arm. "Maybe so, but I can't let you finish what I helped you start."

"You were always so rebellious. You'll regret that when the Faceless Ones arrive to smite all who betrayed them."

China smiled. "Eliza, dear. Give up will you? They aren't Gods. They're monsters, as powerful as Gods maybe, But not Gods. And there is no way left to make them return."

Now it was Eliza's turn to smile. "I thought you knew me better than that China. I always have a Plan B."

And with that she left.

I stayed hidden behind the rock until I was sure she was gone. Then I cautiously crept out from behind my hiding place and stood up.

China's head snapped around and she looked at me with piercing blue eyes. I froze.

"How long have you been there?" she asked me.

"Oh, I- uh… are you ok?" I asked.

She looked down at her injuries. "I'll live."

"Are you sure? That cut on your side looks pretty bad."

"Already healing, see?" She removed her hand and I saw smooth unmarked skin through the slash in her dress.

"but- how did you…?" I gaped.

She smiled, "I guess you're new to magic."

"Wha- How did you know?"

""Trust me dear, I have a sense about these things. I'm China by the way, China Sorrows."

_Even her name is beautiful._ "Oh… um, hello."

"You know, common courtesy would be introducing yourself."

"Oh, right. I'm Sam." I said smiling. "Sam Caprice."


	10. Revelation

China was interested in my story and gave me a ride back to town, we stopped outside an apartment building and went inside. I was cautious about China because I didn't know her, but after thinking back I had realized that I recognized Eliza's voice from the conversation I overheard in the Sanctuary and as the saying goes. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

When the elevator stopped we got out and walked down a hallway, and curiously, none of the doors had numbers, we stopped at a door where there was a small golden plaque that said library, and entered the door opposite. The door shut behind us and China turned to me.

"Why don't I make us some tea?"

I sat down. Now that she had left the room my thinking became clearer. _Why did I come here? I'm alone in a stranger's house. What is wrong with me?_ China returned with a silver tray and sat it down and I almost forgot my recent thoughts, _it's because she's a sorcerer. This must be her power…_ I watched her as she sat down and looked at me.

"You're right to be wary of me. I am a stranger after all."

"I am"

"I won't hurt you."

"How do I know you aren't lying?"

She laughed. "You don't."

She picked up her cup and took a sip.

"Who is Eliza? What were you arguing about?"

"That was Eliza Scorn, she and I have… different views on how the world should be."

"And those views are?"

"She wants the Faceless Ones to return and kill us all. I don't"

"Why would she want that?"

"She's a strong believer in the Faceless Ones and there are others who agree with her. They believe that the world would be better with them in charge."

"But they sound horrible."  
>"They are. But enough about ancient religion, what is your story?"<p>

"Well I was kidnapped by a necromancer and zombie, twice now. And I'm just trying to get home before my mum finds me gone."

She leaned back in her chair. "Interesting. Why were you kidnapped?"

"The first time was because I was in the way I guess. The second time was because they were angry I got away the first time."

"So I was right, You are new to the magic business."

"Well, yeah. I mean, I know some elemental magic but I'm not very good. I don't know where to find someone to teach me."

"I would love to lend you some of my books but unfortunately they were destroyed when Eliza blew up my library. I'm just thankful my defensive charms worked to protect my home."

"Why did Eliza destroy your library?"

"Let's just say we have some bad history." She took another delicate sip of her tea.

I lifted my teacup and took a tentative sip.

China smiled her beautiful smile, and I relaxed.

"You may be new to magic but you seem to be right in the middle of everything that's happening."

"Yeah, I guess I just attract trouble."

"You don't happen to know what they plan to do with Meloncholia do you?"

"How do you know they have Meloncholia?"

"I'm kept in the loop too you know."

"Oh, well I think they plan to well, make her do whatever it is the Death Bringer does and end the world, or something like that. But I don't think they'll pull it off."

"Oh? Why do you think so?"

"Well I'm an unarmed 16 year old girl and I've managed to get away from them twice now, they aren't exactly that smart."

"Hmmm, you may have a point there."

"But they have some outside source that is helping them and _they_ seem to be more of a threat."  
>"What outside source?"<p>

"I… I think it's Eliza."

China looked at me quizzically. "Why do you think that? Eliza Scorn has no interest in the Death Bringer, or any necromancers in general."

"Well I… I think she was the person I overheard in the Sanctuary. She was using the necromancers to… "I jumped out of my seat. "That's it! It _is_ her! She's helping the necromancers so they'll distract everyone from her own plans!"

I was so excited that I had pieced it together. I looked at China.

"Sorry but I have to go now, thanks for the tea."

"Of course" she replied, slightly startled by my sudden outburst. "Would you like me to drive you home?"

"No thanks, I don't think it's too far to walk."

"All right then, goodbye Sam. We should do this again sometime."

"Thanks I'd like that."

And with that I turned around and left the apartment, _she seems nice. I think I can trust her._ I turned a corner and saw the main street, busy with trafficand realised I didn't know how long I had been gone._ Mum's probably called me a hundred times, but I don't have my phone. _"Gah!" I exclaimed, startling an old woman walking past me so that she hurried down the street, clutching her purse. _Ok, I'll go home first, and then tell Skulduggery and Valkyrie what I discovered._ While I hurried home I realised that I didn't know how to contact Skulduggery, or even where the Sanctuary is, I had never heard of Roarhaven. I sighed, _I'll have to figure this out later because right now I'm exhausted._ When I finally arrived home I went straight to my room and collapsed on the bed. After about 1.38 seconds of peace my mum came in.

"Where were you? I tried to ring"

"I uh… I went out with some friends. My phone was on silent sorry."

"It's ok, next time leave a note or something."

"Right will do."

_She can be so overprotective, if she knew what had really been happening to me over the last couple days she would never let me leave the house again._

"Dinner will be ready in about 20 minutes."

I looked at the clock and was surprised at how long I had been out. I reluctantly got off my bed and took a shower, letting the hot water run through my hair while I thought about what to do next.

_I blocked my phone so Dragonclaw can't use it to text or call anyone, but somehow he knew where I was anyway… it can't be a coincidence that he was at the park with a rag full of chloroform. If my phone's battery hasn't died yet then he still has access to my contacts and other information._ This was bad, Dragonclaw has too much information, and this Eliza woman seems very powerful, and where was the person Skulduggery said would 'keep an eye out' for Dragonclaw? _I'll need to contact them somehow. I can't just sit and wait for them to come to me._

I got out of the shower and got dressed. Then I found a map and looked up Roarhaven in the contents. It wasn't there. So then I went to my computer and entered it in the search bar. There were very few results. One was a rant by some American tourist who had apparently had an argument with a store owner and then a weird looking man had insulted his kid.

When I finally found directions I copied them down and then had dinner before collapsing on my bed and instantly falling asleep.


	11. Returning to the Sanctuary

The next morning I woke up early, a first for me I'll admit. For a while I lay in bed practicing magic, I was pretty good with air and was better at fire but I still hadn't attempted water, and I didn't fully understand earth. I got up, dressed and had breakfast, then found the directions to Roarhaven I had written down, I went to leave but was stopped by mum.

"Are you going out?"

"Yeah."

"When will you be back?"

"I don't know, maybe before dinner."

"Do you want a ride?"

"No I'll bike."

"Ok, see ya."

"Bye."

I walked out to the shed and pulled my bike out from under a wheelbarrow, I jumped on and tried to pedal but barely moved, after checking the tires I noticed that both wheel were flat. I sighed and walked back inside.

"Changed my mind, could I borrow the car?"

"Sorry but I have work later, why don't I just drop you off?"

"Fine, ok." _I need my own car.  
><em>"Let's go then, where are you going anyway?"

_Oh crap._ I visualized the map in my head, thinking of somewhere I would go that was near Roarhaven, there was only one place that was close enough to it.

"Twiggy's house."

When we arrived I got out on the street and waited for my mum to drive away before turning away from Twigs house and heading toward Roarhaven. It took a while but I finally arrived in the dark quiet town. I walked cautiously past the bar, but it appeared deserted. So I headed to the Sanctuary. I walked through the front doors and stopped at a small reception desk where a short fat man sat.

"State your name and business"

"Re- I mean, Sam Caprice. I need to see Skulduggery and Valkyrie."

"Pleasant and Cain are not here."

"Where are they?"

"That information is classified."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because they are Official Sanctuary Detectives."

"When will they be back?"

He sighed. "Knowing Pleasant, you never know."

I groaned, I had come all this way for nothing.

"Can I at least have their phone numbers?"

"I am not authorized to give that information to you."

"The can I talk to Ghastly?"

"Elder Bespoke is a busy man, he does not have time to talk with just anyone."

"Well then who can I talk to?"

"What is this referring?"

"I am not authorized to give that information to _you_."

He scowled at me while I held back a laugh.

_Me: 1 Administrator: 0_

"Look, I just need to talk to Skulduggery and Valkyrie, this information is very important."

"Well then you'll have to wait."

"Well then I will."I walked over to the corner and sat down.

The administrator sighed and carried on his work mumbling under his breath.

I sat there, staring at the walls, and ceiling, and everything else in the room. Then I got bored. Yes, I get bored easily but it had been about 10 minutes, that's a long time for me.

So I decided to practice and summoned a spark.

The administrator looked up.

"No magic in the reception area."

I extinguished the flame and sat back, sending insults to the administrator in my head.

"How long will this take?"

"I don't know" he snapped.

"I'm bored."

"Then leave."

"No, I might miss them."

"Then stay."

"But I'm booooored." I whined.

"Then do whatever it is you teenagers do, play on your phone or something."

"I don't have my phone"

"Well that's too bad for you."

Then I had an idea.

"It's not _my_ fault, Dragonclaw stole my phone."

"Dragonclaw? The necromancer? That's a petty crime for someone like him."

"He stole it when he kidnapped me."

"He kidnapped you?"

"That's what I said."

"Why?"

"Something about Meloncholia, I don't know."

"Does Pleasant know about this?"

"Uh… no, that's why I'm here." I lied.

"Fine, I'll call him. You should have told me this earlier." He grumbled and began to dial the phone.

_Me: 2 Administrator: 0_

He put down the phone. "They're on their way."

"Thank you" I said, smiling sweetly.

He scowled at me again and continued scribbling.

It was a further 20 minutes of boring silence before the door burst open. I jumped and looked around in alarm, Skulduggery stood in the doorway, his white skull gleaming under his hat. Valkyrie stood behind him.

"There was no need for that." She said.

"I like to make an entrance."

She rolled her eyes.

I stood up, stretching my legs. "It's about time you got here. I've been stuck with this guy for hours." I said jerking my thumb over my shoulder at the administrator.

"It was only half an hour." He retorted grumpily.

"Seemed like an eternity" I mumbled under my breath.

"So are you the reason we were called back here?" Valkyrie asked.

"Well, yeah. I've found out some stuff that might help you."

"We probably already know it." Skulduggery said. "We are detectives after all. And this case is going great, we have so much information and um, clues and –"

"We have nothing." Valkyrie interrupted.

"Well not_ nothing._ We have… theories."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes again. She seems to do that a lot.

"Let's go to the interrogation room" she suggested.

We left and walked down the hall to the interrogation room. They waited until the door was closed behind us before questioning me.

"So what brings you here?"

"Well I was kidnapped. _Again._"

They both looked at me with surprise.

"What? How? When?" Valkyrie asked

"I went to the park and Dragonclaw must have snuck up behind me and knocked me out with chloroform."

"But we assigned a sorcerer to watch your house." Said Skulduggery, "It's impossible that he got past them undetected."

"But I wasn't at my house."

"That may be true but they were there to guard you in case this would happen, they should have followed you to the park."

"That sounds stalkerish."

"It was for your protection."

"Well it didn't exactly work did it? No can I finish telling my story?"

"Right, go on. We'll sort out the details later."

"Well, after I got away from Dragonclaw, which was surprisingly easy by the way, I found out who the woman in the conference room was, she's been helping Dragonclaw with his whole Meloncholia plan thing."

"Who is it?"

"Eliza Scorn."

"What?" Valkyrie said. "She doesn't care about the Death Bringer."

"But she's using them as a cover up." Noted Skulduggery.

"Exactly. They're meant to distract you while she tries to bring back the Faceless Ones."

"How do you know this?" Skulduggery asked.

"I went to this old farm house to ask for directions to get home, and that's where I met China Sorrows."

Valkyrie stiffened and looked at Skulduggery, who remained perfectly still.

"Go on." He said quietly.

Confused, I continued and told them all about what happened at the farm house and then what I discovered back at China's apartment.

When I had finished, neither of them said anything.

I sat quietly letting them think.

Suddenly Valkyrie spoke, making me jump.

"Thank you for this information. It's really helpful."

"No problem."

She turned to Skulduggery, "Do you think this was the same farm house? and they were setting up symbols?"

Skulduggery finally spoke up. "We won't know till we check. We'll also look into how Dragonclaw got past your guard and assign you a new one. From now on, try to be more careful."

"You were lucky to escape." Valkyrie added.

"All I did was break a window. Not too hard."

She smiled, "We've had run-ins with Dragonclaw before, he's good at covering his trail, but not so much at anything else."

"Yeah, I've noticed that. Why does he have zombies for henchmen? They aren't so smart either."

"Scapegrace? But he's just a head."

"No, Thrasher. He carries Scapegrace around in a chilly-bin."

Valkyrie laughed. "I guess Eliza wanted someone who wouldn't be good at their job. That way they would be a distraction but not a threat."

"Exactly what I was thinking." Skulduggery added, "We should probably get you home now. Do you want a ride?"

"Wait, would you be able to give me a quick lesson before I go?" I asked Valkyrie.

Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie "Lesson?"

Valkyrie blushed. "I said I might help her with her magic."

"Please please please!" I begged.

"Go on." Said Skulduggery "I'll stay here and sort out the boring stuff."

"Really?" said Valkyrie, sounding surprised.

"Why not? We do owe her for all her help."

"YES!" I yelled. Then I grabbed Valkyries hand and ran outside, a huge grin on my face.


	12. Lesson with Valkyrie

"Ok, first things first. I should probably go over the some of the rules of magic." Said Valkyrie as we walked outside and headed over to a clearing in the nearby forest.

"First rule, of course, is that magic is to be kept completely secret. So no flashing your skills about in front of mortals. Second, is to not try too much magic on your own, you can practise some simple stuff but otherwise you might hurt yourself. Third -"

"Wait a sec, I had a question."

"Yeah?"

"Well actually a couple questions. Why can't mortals know? What would happen if they did know? And why do we call them mortals? We're not immortal are we? How would I hurt myself? Do you mean I can't control it or could I accidentally blow something up? "

"That was more than a couple questions." She pointed out

"Oh, right. Sorry." I replied

"Ok, well we don't let mortals know because of how they would react, some would fear us and maybe attack, others would be curious and could get themselves in trouble and well I don't know. It's just not a very good idea."

"Hmmm, I guess you're right."

"I think that answered your first two questions, and we call them mortals because they are I guess. It's not to belittle them or anything, and no, we aren't immortal but we do live a lot longer."

"We'll still die if we are shot or stabbed, we just don't age as fast. My friend Tanith-"

"What?"

"Nothing. Uh I mean, Skulduggery was born in the 1900's."

"But he's a skeleton."

"He wasn't always a skeleton you know. But yeah, he probably wasn't the best example."

"Who's Tanith?"

"That's enough questions let's get started on your training."

"Right, Ok." I could take a hint.

"Alright then, let's see what you already know."

"Well I can move small objects with air and make fire appear."

"I have to admit that's pretty impressive for someone who has never tried magic before."

I beamed with the praise. "I've never tried anything with earth or water yet though. How is that done?"

"Well water isn't too different but it is a bit harder to grasp, and I've never used earth before… It's not like the other elements."

"How so?"

"Well, it's only used as a last resort. You know for defence."

"It's that powerful?"

"It's not what you're thinking. Ghastly used it once, he…" She paused, searching for the right words. "He _absorbed_ the ground, and well, he kinda turned into a statue."

I gasped. "What, Why?"

"It was an emergency. Anyway he came right about 2 years later, he's all fine now as you've seen."

"Wow."

"Yup. Skulduggery is the only person I know of that has used the earth element a different way. He can control it just like fire, water or air."

"Is Skulduggery your magic teacher?"

"Yeah"

"So he'll teach you to control earth too?"

"I guess so. Anyway we're off topic. And to answer your last few questions, yes. You could accidentally blow something up or open a portal to another world."

"Really?"

"No, you idiot. But you could do something wrong and hurt yourself or expose magic."

"Oh."

"Anyway, let's get back to the lesson."  
>"Right. Ok."<p>

"There's so much more you can do with air besides moving things. Air needs to be displaced somewhere so you can use that to do some pretty badass stuff."

I laughed. "Like what?"

"I'll show you." She held out her arm toward a nearby tree and snapped back her palm. Suddenly the trunk of the tree exploded with a crash as bits of bark flew about.

"Awesome."

"Just remember to clear your head and find the place where the fault lines in the air meet, then just push."

"Clear head. Fault lines. Push. Got it." I repeated.

I held my arm toward a hollow tree standing not far off from me, and repeated her actions. The tree imploded with a loud _wumph_. "That was cool!" I exclaimed.

Valkyrie looked confused. "You moved the air from _inside_ the tree?"

"Yeah... is that ok? Or did you want me to move it from in front to make it explode like you did?"

"No, that was fine. Uh, very creative use of air." She frowned, looking confused but shrugged it off and continued.

"Air can be used for more than just that, if you make the air denser you can cushion your fall, or use it to push yourself up to reach high places."

"Cool, can I try?"

"Sure" she replied, though I could see that she was still confused.

I shrugged it off and walked over to a tall tree that was still intact and picked a branch that looked sturdy. Then with my arms by my sides I pushed as much air as I could down at the ground and felt myself shoot upwards past the branch.

I scrambled around in the air until I finally found something to cling onto.

Valkyrie walked over and looked up at me.

"I think you overshot your mark."

"Yeah… I think so."

"Now drop."

I looked down at her. "Are you nuts? I'll break my leg!"

"Just pull some air in beneath you to cushion your fall."

"OK, I'll just… drop" I looked down and took a deep breath. Then let go of the branch and pulled my hands down, gathering up as much air as I could.

I felt my descent slow down until I felt the earth under my feet. Only then did I open my eyes.

"You're a natural."

"Really?"

"I'm serious, you're picking this up really fast."

"I agree"

We both spun around to see Skulduggery leaning on a nearby tree.

"How long have you been there?" I asked.

"Not long." He looked at Valkyrie "We have to go."

"Right." She turned to me. "Are you ok to get home?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for the lesson."

"No problem. See you around."

"Yeah, bye."

I walked to the corner of the street and turned back to wave but Valkyrie and Skulduggery were already deep in conversation. _Must be important._

Then, without anything left to do, I turned away and walked home.


	13. We may have a Problem

"I still don't see what the big deal is." Skulduggery said, clearly sounding exasperated.

"I swear, she just, I don't know. It didn't move, it just… _moved."_ Valkyrie responded.

"Ok, tell me _exactly_ what happened."

"We were practising with air, I moved some from behind the tree to make it, you know, explode."

"Naturally."

"Well she moved the air from _inside_ the tree and it _imploded_"

"Really? Well that is rather impressive but I'm still not seeing the issue here."

Valkyrie sighed. It wasn't often when she had to explain something to Skulduggery, and she found that she wasn't too good at it.

"There was no break in the tree, well not until it imploded. But I'm pretty sure that she… I mean I think she… I don't even know if it's possible…"

"While we're young Valkyrie"

"You're not exactly young though are you?"

"Just get on with it."

"I think she teleported the air."

"What? Not possible."  
>"I'm sure of it."<p>

"Teleporters are adepts, not elementals. You can dabble in two kinds of magic, like you do. But you can't use _both_ at the same time. That would be like you summoning a flame with necromancy. Not possible."

"I'm 99% sure that she moved the air out of the tree without actually having it travel out. It just disappeared and the tree just exploded."

"Imploded."

"Whatever. The point is that it wasn't basic elemental magic."

"Well from what I saw, she _was_ rather advanced for her level of training."

"Exactly! So do you think we should find out more?"

"You know, there's an easy solution to this."

"Right, we'll just call her back and ask her to do it again."

"Actually I was thinking you just give her another lesson, I'll watch this one and we'll see if she does anything else out of the ordinary. No need to cause alarm."

"Right, that's probably better actually."

"But we can deal with that later. At the moment, we have more important matters. We're going to see Finbar, several seers have been having the same vision, and as usual, that's our cue to check it out."

"It's not Darquesse is it?" Valkyrie asked hopefully

"Actually no, though she was mentioned. This is some new dark sorcerer, or possible dark sorcerer. You know how the future can change."

"Let's hope it will." responded Valkyrie thinking back to the prophecies made about her.

"Well then we'll have to make it."


	14. Finding Trouble

As I walked home, I thought about what had just happened. _I still can't get over the fact that I'm magical!_ My life has always been so boring, so… _normal_. I was always longing for some kind of excitement and it got it! Granted of course that I was kidnapped… twice.

I wasn't far from town now and I could catch the bus the rest of the way home, I turned a corner and then froze dead when I heard a scream.

Right in front of me, some thug in a ski mask was brandishing a knife and demanding money from a woman who was desperately trying to shield her son.

I know Valkyrie said that we can't show magic to mortals, but I couldn't just walk away. I didn't even realise what I was doing but I was already running toward the mugger. I tapped him on the shoulder, and when he turned to me I then punched him square across the jaw.

_What was I thinking? I'm a 17 year old girl with no fighting experience going against a full grown man with a knife! _ I guess I was pumped from my previous lesson I thought I could take him. I was wrong. My hand ached. _I can't even punch right!_

He glared at me and rubbed his chin, then punched me back, right in the stomach. The wind was knocked out of me and fell forward, gasping for air. Just as I saw his knee hurtling toward my face. I managed to move out of the way and he stumbled. But this seemed to make him angrier.

"Go!" I yelled to the frightened woman, clinging onto her son. "Run! Get away!"

"I'll call the police!" She yelled back and ran toward town. _Ever heard of a cell phone lady?_

Mr. Mugger-man must have remembered that he had a knife because I suddenly felt a searing hot pain across my arm as he swung his arm around and cut me just below the shoulder.

I gasped as blood poured down my arm, and then held my hand against it hard to stop the flow.

"Listen, you don't have to do this. You'll be arrested for a mugging, don't make it anything worse."

He grinned, it was the honestly creepiest smile I had ever seen. Then charged toward me. _Oh crap_. Then without even thinking about it I held out my hands and shot him with a blast of air. It hit him in the gut and he went flying backwards, hitting his head against the brick fence behind him, where he fell down unconscious.

_Oh crap. Is this bad? I think it's bad._ _It's very bad. No it's not, the only person who saw it probably has a concussion and won't remember. Oh my god what if I killed him. I hope he doesn't have any brain damage oh god oh god oh god._

Suddenly he groaned and swung out with his knife hand again, this time cutting my ankle. I jumped in fright and kicked him in the head. He fell unconscious again.

_Ok. He's not dead. I'll just leave and the police will come and no one will know I was here._

I kicked the knife out of his hand and quickly walked away and crossed the street, getting as far away as I could. While I walked, I ripped the bottom of my shirt and tied it around my arm to cover the cut, and hopefully stop the bleeding. I did the same to my ankle though that cut wasn't as deep. There was already a growing stain on my sleeve. _Girl in ripped clothes covered in blood walking through town, yeah, that's not suspicious at all._ Maybe I should avoid town, it would take longer to get home though.

I nervously looked back to where I left mugger-man lying and to my horror, he was gone. I began to panic. _I thought he got knocked out! What if he comes after me?_ If he is anything like Dragonclaw, then he will. I can't have two lunatics after me. I quickened my pace.

Screw it. I began running; I sprinted past houses and shops until I was in the centre of town, tired, gasping for breath, and covered in sweat and blood. I 'm not surprised by the amount of nervous glances I was attracting. But at least I'm safe. There are too many people here for me to be attacked by anyone.

I sat down on a bench to catch my breath and suddenly realised something horrifying. Worse than the mugger and Dragonclaw put together, not to mention those idiot zombies. Something far more terrifying.

_What am I going to tell my mother?_


	15. A Helping Hand

"Becca?"

My head shot up at my name and I saw Elishia standing in front of me in her work uniform.

"Oh, hey Twiggy."

"Hey Twiggy?"

"Uh…"

"You're in the middle of town covered in blood and you say 'Hey Twiggy'?"

"Um… Hello Elishia?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Listen, it's a long story and I'm really tired, I just want to go home."

She looked at me closely. "Do I need to call the police?"

"No, it's fine some lady already did."

"So where are they?"

"Who?"

"The police! And why did they need to be called? And why are you covered in blood? Is that your blood? Oh my god it is. I should call an ambulance, we need to go to the hospital. Oh my god. What are you waiting for? Let's go!"

I stared at her.

"What?"

"Are you done panicking? It's just a little blood. Seriously I'm fine."

"Oh my god she's delusional from blood loss. Come on. We need to go NOW."

"I'm not delusional, I'm-" I was cut short when I noticed my arm, Not only was the sleeve completely blood soaked but also the entire right side of my body was covered in blood. Suddenly, all the pain that I had been ignoring hit me at once and I winced.

"Ok, maybe that is a lot of blood. But I can clean it up at home, all I need is a bandage."

"Do you need to call your mum?"`

"I'd prefer it if she didn't find out about this. I just know she'd freak"

"Well she's probably going to find out sooner or later. Are you going to tell me how it happened?"

"It was a mugger he-."

"You got mugged?! In the middle of town?"

"Well, it wasn't actually _me_ I was just-"

"But you got hurt! What the hell happened?"

"He had a knife, but seriously I'm-"

"He had a _knife_?!"

"Listen, I'm really tired, I think I'll head home now"

"Right sure. Let's go."

"Huh?"

"To the hospital."

"Look. I just want to go home."

"I'll fight you over this and by the state of you, I think I'll win. We're going to the hospital."

I sighed. _Damn she can be stubborn._ "Fine. We'll go to the hospital."

She helped me up and we made our way to the hospital where I ended up needing 12 stitches in my arm. I tried hard to avoid Elishia's 'I told you so' face but I swear that whenever I looked away she would slide around the room until she was in my field of vision again.

Then I had to endure my mother as she cried and hugged me while I answered the questions asked by the police.

Once the police were done with their questions and I was all bandaged up, my mum offered to drive Elishia home, I didn't realise at first what a mistake that was.

"Thank you so much Elishia." Mum said, for the millionth time. "A mugger! In this part of town!"

"Yeah, I was a bit surprised too." Elishia replied

"What were you girls doing in town anyway?"  
><em>Uh-oh.<em>

"I had work." Elishia responded.

"Yeah!" I interrupted, "We were walking into town together, because she had work and I was heading home, you know, because I was at her house. Right twiggy? I. Was. At. Your. House." I said hoping she would play along.

Elishia looked at me quizzically but said nothing.

'_Sorry'_ I mouthed so that my mother couldn't hear. '_Just play along, please?'_

"…Yeah. I was on my way to work."

'_Thank you'_

'_You owe me '_

'_I know.' _

"Oh, well shouldn't you be at work then?" mum asked

"Oh! Um… I actually… got a text saying I wasn't on today. There was a mistake."

I breathed a sigh of relief, but Elishia was still watching me. _Crap. I hate lying to Twig, but I guess I have to._

We dropped Elishia home, and then headed home ourselves, my mother firing questions at me the whole time.

"Mum, calm down. I'm alright now and no one got hurt."

"You have 12 stitches in your arm!"

"Well apart from that, no one got hurt." I replied.

_Except the mugger_ I thought to myself with a sly smile. _Guess I'm pretty badass._

When we got home I went straight to my room and collapsed on my bed, falling asleep instantly.


	16. Practice Makes Perfect

I awoke the next morning with a dull throbbing pain in my arm, I looked down to see the bandage and the memories of yesterday came flooding back to me. _Oh._

I got up and had shower, then went down for some breakfast, on the table was a note.

_Becca, I went to work and probably won't be home till late._

_There's leftovers in the fridge and remember to change your bandaging._

_Love Mum_

I wolfed down some breakfast, not realising how hungry I was, then looked around the empty house and realised I had nothing to do. School wasn't back till next week and it's not like I have my phone to text any of my friends. _Guess I'll just practise magic._ I smiled, this could be fun.

Back in my room, I sat on my bed and stared intently at an earring lying on my dresser. I raised my hand toward it and pushed, it shot backwards and fell down the crack between the dresser and the wall. _Oops._ I turned my attention to the second earring, this time I tried to pull it toward me, I pulled my hand back and twisted my wrist, but instead the earring shot straight up in the air and then fell behind the dresser, joining its pair. _Damn, though that was still pretty cool. _I got up off my bed and reached down the side of my dresser, searching for the earrings, but my hand couldn't reach and I couldn't be bothered pulling the dresser away from the wall. Instead, I raised my hand and repeated the twisting motion, the earring shot upwards and I caught one, though the other rose at an angle and narrowly missed my eye. I picked up the second earring and replaced them on my dresser. I was ready to try something bigger, or maybe a more complex move. I absent-mindedly clicked my fingers and played with the flame it summoned, passing it from hand to hand, making it grow and shrink, then I had an idea. I extinguished the flame and went to the bathroom, I filled the sink with water and stood staring at it, I had never tried using water before and actually didn't know how. I held up my hand and pushed, like I did with air, but only created a few ripples across the water from the gust of air.

I tried a different approach, instead of more sudden movements I twisted my hand slowly, concentrating on each individual droplet of water and where they connect. _Look for the fault lines and find where they meet._ As I twisted my hand a sphere of water rose up and hovered above the sink, I rose my other hand and repeated my actions, this time, all the water in the sink rose to meet the first sphere and hovered there. A great blob of water just floating before my eyes. I laughed, _this is amazing!_ I moved my hands and the water followed, I made it float around the bathroom and even change shape from a blob to a long thin strand. _I'm going to have a lot of fun with this._

Just then the phone rang, the noise startled me and I dropped the water, it splashed at my feet and left a large puddle on the floor. _Woops, better clean that up later. _I ran out to the lounge and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Uh… yes. Is Sam home?" A familiar sounding voice replied

"Sorry, I think you have the wro- Oh wait! That's me." I answered.

"Oh, right. This is Valkyrie."

"Hey Val, um… how did you get this number?"

"I'm ringing you off your phone."

"You found it? Does that mean you found Dragonclaw?"

"Not exactly, we found Thrasher, I don't know why he had your phone but he did. We have him in custody and we'll need you to come in. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I don't have anything else to do today. But I don't have any way to get there."

"We'll come pick you up, see you soon."

"Yeah, bye."

I hung up and ran to get my shoes, looks like today will be interesting after all.


	17. Thrashers Confession

It didn't take long for the sleek black Bentley to pull up outside my house, I locked the door and ran out to great Valkyrie and Skulduggery, then jumped in the backseat.

"Here." Val said, leaning over the front seat and handing me my phone. "You have a few messaged and missed calls."

"Oh thanks." I said and took the phone, the battery was almost dead, but it had enough left for me to scroll through the messaged and missed calls. _Nothing really important anyway_.

"So Thrasher huh? Have you interrogated him or anything?" I asked.

"Not yet actually." Skulduggery answered in his velvety voice.

"Someone else is actually on the case and even though _we_ found him, there not letting _us_ interrogate him." Valkyrie added.

"Right, and why did you need me?"

"To validate any information he gives."

"Validate?"

"Tell us if he's lying, it's just standard protocol."

"Oh. Ok, I can do that."

"But there's one thing we need you to do for _us_." Skulduggery said.

"Hm?"

"Well… we need you to lie."

"What?"

"Not actually lie." Valkyrie added. "Just exaggerate the truth a bit."

"Why?"

"All they did was kidnap you and you managed to get away on your own. That's not really enough cause to investigate this further. Of course they did also break into the Sanctuary and steal Meloncholia who is still in comatose, but they're treating that as a separate matter."

"So you want me to make out like this is a big deal too. Why?"

"Well, we have reason to believe that he kidnapped you for reasons other than the fact that you were just in the way. But they won't let us investigate further if they close this case."

"Then all we would be allowed to do is track down Meloncholia and that would be the end of it. Case closed." Valkyrie added

"But you want to investigate further… Is this about Eliza Scorn?" I asked.

"Yes actually, it's extremely suspicious that she would have anything to do with Dragonclaw."

"Why don't you just investigate her yourselves?"

"We would normally just go ahead with our own plan, but His Highness Elder Bespoke asked us nicely to stop doing that." Skulduggery added.

"Ok, I think I understand."

"And if this doesn't work we'll probably do that anyway, this is just us making an effort to follow the rules."

"This is all new to us." Valkyrie murmured quietly to me.

"What is?" I asked

"Following rules." She responded.

It wasn't long before we arrived at the Sanctuary and Skulduggery led us inside.

The same administrator was sitting behind the desk, scrawling something on a piece of paper.

"State your name and business." He said lazily, without even looking up.

"Seriously? I am not going through with this every time." Skulduggery responded.

The administrator looked up and despair seemed to cross his face for a second. He went to speak, seemed to change his mind and then sighed, "Oh, just go in."

"Thank you." And as we walked past him into the Sanctuary I heard him muttering under his breath, something about "protocol" and "just doing his job."

I followed Skulduggery and Val through a maze of corridors until we reached a small room with just a table and some chairs, in one of the chairs sat a man who must be a Sanctuary official, he stood up as we entered the room.

"All right let's get this over with." He sounded bored, must be an uninteresting case for him. I bet he doesn't even know the full details. I smirked at the thought that I probably know more than him, I don't even know why I found it so amusing.

He looked at me.

"So this is the girl?"

"Yup, that's her." Valkyrie answered.

"Have a seat." He said to me.

I looked at Skulduggery and Valkyrie and they nodded.

"He's just going to ask you some more questions to check that your story matches whatever story Thrasher told." Skulduggery added.

"Oh," I sat down opposite the man. "Ok, shoot."

"Now, according to your statement you were kidnapped by Dragonclaw and his zombie associates."

"Yeah, twice."

He raised an eyebrow. _He must think I'm some pitiful little damsel in distress!_

"But I managed to escape both times." I added.

I heard Valkyrie slump behind me, _Oops._

"But, uh… it was really difficult. I got this really big bruise and um…"

"You also said that you were mortal before your first capture?" He interjected. _I don't like this guy_

"Yes. See I found this book and um…" _Gotta make it seem bad, gotta make it seem bad._

"He shouldn't have kidnapped a mortal right? So uh… that's against the rules and um… he… he committed a murder!" I shouted.

Everyone was sitting up a little straighter now.

"Why didn't you mention this before? This is much more serious, do you know the victim?"

"Yes, Phil Lynott."

Valkyrie frowned. "That guy from Thin Lizzy?"

"Yeah, he melted him!"

I heard a very audible sigh from my interrogator, and I swear I heard Valkyrie slump again.

"Yes, yes, we know about the wax sculpture. Now if you can tell us anything _new _that would be great, otherwise we'll move on to Thrashers statement."

"Yeah, ok."

"Now, Thrashers claims actually match your statement pretty closely and-"

"Well then why was I called in?" I interrupted, this guy was starting to _really_ bug me.

He shrugged, "Just protocol, I guess."

"Right, whatever. Has What else has he told you?"

He stared at me. "What else could he tell me? I questioned him about the kidnapping and his story seemed o match yours, so that's really all there is to it."

"But what about Dragonclaw? And Meloncholia?"

"Dragonclaws whereabouts are unknown, and the kidnapping of Meloncholia St Claire is a separate matter." He said as he stood up to leave.

"No it's not!" I was yelling now. "He kidnapped me _because_ he was planning to kidnap her!"

He paused in a half crouch over his chair then slowly sat down again and turned to face me. "What is your reasoning behind this? And why was it not mentioned before?"

Why had I said that? I was sure he had only kidnapped me because I was in the way, and then the second time purely out of revenge.

"Because… he… um, he was going to give her my life energy… or something. To… I don't know, revive her or something."

"Yes but he could have used anyone for that."

"That maybe, but the point is that my kidnapping does actually tie in with the Meloncholia case right?"

"Well, in a way… I suppose."

"And, Eliza Scorn was the one who hired Dragonclaw to do all this."

"What proof do you have of that?"

"When I first came here with Dragonclaw, I ran away and hid in a room, then a woman came in and spoke with this guy and they were the ones who planned it all. I'm sure it was Eliza Scorn, she's using Dragonclaw so that he and Meloncholia would distract you guys from her plans to bring back the Faceless Ones!"

"Wha- but, I need to-"

At that moment Skulduggery stepped forward. "Thank you, I think that will be all now." He said in his velvety voice.

"But… it's not…"

"You can talk to the people in charge and tell them we'll be handling this case from now on."

"See ya" Val said with a smile and then they steered me out the door, while my interrogator stood dumbstruck.

Once we were out of ear shot, Val patted me on the back.

"You did great, that last comment will leave them thinking and now we have an all access pass to investigate further."

"He didn't know about Eliza Scorn?"

"He only knew the details of the kidnapping case, so that may have been a bit of a shock for him."

"So what do I get?" I asked.

"What?" Valkyrie responded, looking confused.

"For helping you. I'll take another lesson if you don't mind."

Valkyrie smiled. "Yeah sure, and this time Skulduggery can tag along and help."

"Great! Let's go!"


	18. Here One Minute, Gone The Next

"Yes! I've been waiting to have another lesson ever since the last one!"

Valkyrie laughed, "Well someone's eager, have you been practicing?"

"Yeah, and I figured out how to move water!"

"Really?" Valkyrie said, sounding rather surprised. "Well, then let's see what you've got."

I looked around where we were standing, we had come to an open space in the forest near Roarhaven, scanning the clearing, I spotted a small pond to my left.

I raised both hands and lifted a sphere of water out of the pond, then made it fly over toward us, then stretched it out into a tendril and snaked it back into the pond where it returned to the water with a small splash.

"Impressive as always, you're progressing at an incredibly fast rate." Skulduggery mused.

I glowed at the praise.

"How's your fire power coming along?" Valkyrie asked.

"Well I can make a flame, but I haven't exactly been able to practice properly because I'll probably end up burning something down."

Valkyrie laughed, "I guess that's true, how about air?"

"Well, I _think_ I'm improving."

"Let's have a look."

"Right, ok. Umm…" I looked around for something to use and finally spotted a rock on the ground not far from my foot. I raised my hand and felt the fault lines, then pulled, and the rock came shooting toward me and I caught it in my hand.

"Nice control" Skulduggery commented.

"Thanks I-" I paused and stared into the forest.

"What?" Valkyrie asked.

"Oh, I… thought I saw someone."

"Really?" Skulduggery asked as Valkyrie looked over in the same direction.

"Yeah, I mean, it looked like a person, but it was probably just a shadow or something."

"I've never trusted shadows." Skulduggery murmured, and I saw Valkyrie fidget with a black ring on her hand.

"Think we should check it out?" Valkyrie asked.

"Might as well."

"It can't be anything too bad right? I mean, we're not that far from the town so it's probably just a passer by taking a short cut through the woods, or it could've just been a bird, or it really was just a harmless shadow caused by the wind moving a tree, or-"

"You're babbling." Valkyrie stated.

"Oh. Sorry, but is this seriously something to get worked up about?"

"You're the only one getting worked up here."

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"And you can stop saying sorry."

"Sorry."

Valkyrie sighed then looked at Skulduggery.

"Want to check it out?"

"It's better to be on the safe side, and with the amount of guys after us I wouldn't be surprised if it actually was someone trying to sneak up on us." Skulduggery answered in a low voice

"We'll check it out, you stay here. Ok?"

"Yeah, fine. Whatever." _I still don't see the big deal._

Skulduggery and Valkyrie walked over to the suspicious spot as casually as if they were going for a stroll through the park then slipped behind the trees and were lost from sight.

I waited in the clearing for 10 minutes but they didn't come back out. _Did they ditch me? That is so not cool._

I gave it a few more minutes and then decided to check it out for myself. _There couldn't have actually been someone there… I didn't hear anything that sounded like they were attacked, they're probably just trying to scare me… or maybe they really did ditch me._

Before I had even made it to the edge of the forest I saw a figure heading my way.

"It's about time." I called out, "I was starting to think you guys just left."

Suddenly I was grabbed from behind by large heavy hands, I stumbled backwards into my attacker and knocked him back but he dragged me down with him and we tumbled backwards across the grass. I jumped out of his grip and stood up then turned around and gasped.

My attacker was the same size and shape as a man, but made completely out of what looked like paper, except for the hands and feet which were made of a thick heavy material. I took a step back and saw that more had just appeared out of nowhere, and had surrounded me. One of the paper men stepped forward and swung a fist at me, I ducked and reached out with my hand, grabbing at his papery skin and tearing a great hole in his chest.

A foul smelling gas escaped from the hole and hit me in the face, I gagged and stumbled back but that put me in the path of another paper man, which knocked me to the ground.

_Their movements may be slow but the weight of their hands gives them a powerful punch. _I rubbed my temple where I had been knocked and looked up, I was completely surrounded by the paper men. Or at least I think I was, my eyes were watering from the gas and all I could see were blurred outlines, I gasped for breath and rubbed at my eyes, though that seemed to make it worse. Once my vision had cleared, I looked around, I was still surrounded but they weren't attacking. They just stood in a circle around me, I stood up and was immediately knocked back down by one of the paper men standing behind me. My head throbbed from the blow but other than that I was all right. I stayed on the ground and tried to figure my next move.

_This seems more like a capture rather than an attack, _I groaned. _I can't get kidnapped a third time, that's just getting embarrassing._ _And where are Skulduggery and Valkyrie?_

Suddenly I heard a crash somewhere nearby.

"Sam!" Valkyrie called.

"Took you guys long enough!" I yelled back

"Where are you? There are Hollow Men everywhere!" she sounded out of breath, I figured she had just fought her way through. _So these are called Hollow Men._

"Thanks for the update but I kind of figured that myself."

"What are they crowded around…? Sam, are you _in_ with them?"

"They just came out of nowhere and surrounded me!" I yelled out, the Hollow Men surrounding me seemed not to notice out conversation happening over their heads.

"Are you hurt?"

"Not really, they just knocked me around a bit."

"Skulduggery's on his way don't wor- Aagh!"

"Valkyrie!" I yelled. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just got a face full of gas."

_I can't just sit here and wait for Valkyrie and Skulduggery to come save me, I'm going to fight my way out._

From where I sat on the ground I summoned a flame, one of the Hollow Men seemed to notice what I was up to and reached for me, but he was too late and I set him and 3 others alight. They fell back but were instantly replaced by more.

_How many of these guys are there?_

I summoned another flame, this time intending to set them all on fire, when suddenly they all rushed at me and I only managed to take out 2 before I was knocked back down, however, this time they didn't stop, I was covered in a flurry of punches that I had no way to block, I covered my head with my arms as I received blow after blow.

_I would give anything to be anywhere but here right now. _For some reason, all I could think about was that if I was home right now, I would probably be chilling on the couch, instead of being pulverized on by weird paper people.

Suddenly the blows stopped. I kept my head hidden under my hands until I was sure I wouldn't be attacked again, I looked up. I wasn't in the field anymore, in fact, I was in my bedroom, crouched on the floor, I stood up, confused.

_How did I get here?_


	19. Search and Rescue

Skulduggery burst out through the trees, flame in hand and tore through several Hollow Men as he made his way over to Valkyrie.

Suddenly the attacks ceased and the remaining Hollow Men joined their comrades.

"Sam's in the middle of them!"

Skulduggery looked over at the crowd of Hollow Men.

"Is she hurt?" he asked

"I don't think so, they just seem to be trapping her, it looked they would attack if she moved so I guess she's just keeping still."

"Right, then all we need to do is find a way to take out the Hollow Men without taking her out with them."

"How could there be so many? They even managed to hold you back for a bit."

"It's always surprising when they attack in great numbers but of course they were no match for my cunning and wits. How about you? You got hurt."

"What? I'm fine."

"I saw you trip over a tree root."

"I didn't trip, it was a defensive manoeuvre"

"You'll have to show me that one."

"Sam!" Valkyrie called out over the heads of the Hollow Men, there was no answer.

"Sam! Are you ok?" still no reply.

"She was answering me a second ago." Valkyrie explained to Skulduggery, "You don't think she's…"

"They may have just knocked her out, from what you said they weren't trying to hurt her, and if whoever is behind this wanted her dead they probably would have sent a single assassin rather than a horde of Hollow Men."

"Right, that makes sense."

"Also, her being unconscious may actually be to our advantage." Skulduggery added.

"What?"

"Well we can assume she is lying on the ground, as we can't see her over their heads, all we do now is send a horizontal attack over her that slices through all the Hollow Men. Quick and Simple."

"I'm surprised you actually came up with a plan that would be quick and simple" Valkyrie mused.

"Of course I can, I'm amazing, and look good in a suit."

"Don't forget modest."

"You know me so well."

"Do you find it odd that none of the Hollow Men are looking our way?"

"Hmmm… I do a bit; they seem very interested in the centre of the circle where our poor little Sam is lying. It's rather offensive that their attention could be diverted from someone as great as me."

"…putting your ego aside, I'm going to start slicing now."

"Go right ahead."

Valkyrie gathered up the shadows cast by the trees and sent a wide slice of darkness hurtling through the crowd of Hollow Men, cutting each one cleanly in two and releasing a great cloud of the vile gas they contain into the air.

"Eugh, I would not want to be in the middle of that."

"Well Sam _is_ in the middle of that so we should probably get her out now."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Aren't I always?"

Valkyrie rolled her eyes and made her way over to the centre of the massacre, she looked amongst the tattered remains of the Hollow Men and was shocked to find no trace of Sam anywhere.

"She's not here."

"They can't have taken her away already, we would have noticed."

Skulduggery examined the scene.

"The Hollow Men were to trap her and keep us away, they aren't reliable enough for a proper kidnapping so someone else must have come in to grab her while we were fighting through."

"But I talked to her once I had arrived, I never saw her but I heard her voice from amongst the crowd of Hollow Men."

"And you're sure you saw no one else?"

"Positive. Unless-" she paused. "oh no."

"Hm?"

"There was one moment when I got a face full of Hollow Men gas, my vision was clouded for a bit. And it was also the last time I heard her speak."

"Well they can't be far, let's go."

Skulduggery grabbed Valkyrie around the waist and was about to take off just as a man stumbled out of the forest. He stared around at the Hollow Men remains and then at Skulduggery and Valkyrie standing in the centre of it.

"Oh hell." He said and ran.

"I guess we found our guy." Valkyrie stated.


	20. A New way to Travel

I stared around my bedroom, confused. _I'm sure I was just in a field getting beaten up a moment ago._

Something grabbed my leg and I jerked back as a Hollow Man stood up beside me.

"Aagh!" I screamed and quickly summoned a flame which I threw and he was set alight.

"Aagh!" I screamed again as I realised I had just set fire to a paper bag full of flammable gas in the middle of my bedroom. I grabbed my water bottle of off my bedside table and dumped it over the flaming remains of the Hollow Man.

"Oh crap. Now I have Hollow Man ash all over my floor. That is so gross."I carefully stepped around the pile and sat on my bed. _How the hell did I get here?_

The charred remains of the Hollow Man and the fast developing bruises along my arms were proof enough that I hadn't dreamed the whole thing. So how did I get from the clearing in the forest all the way back to my bedroom?

_Magic? It must have been, I remember being clobbered by Hollow Men, and wishing I was back here, then suddenly I was._ I gasped. _Did I just teleport?_

That was the only explanation. How else could it have happened? I was wishing I was here and then I was. _Oh no. I left Skulduggery and Valkyrie back in the clearing, they're probably wondering what happened to me._

Despite the situation, I couldn't help smiling. _I can teleport. That is so cool._

_I guess I should get back now._ I paused. _Um... how do I do that? I guess I'll just picture the clearing in my head and wish really hard._ I laughed, that seemed like such a weird way of putting it, but it had worked before.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying hard to picture the clearing in my head. I put myself in the picture and suddenly I felt wind in my hair and sunlight on my face. I opened my eyes, I was back in the clearing, I broke out in a huge grin. _It worked! This is so awesome!_ Suddenly I noticed the tattered Hollow Men remains and Skulduggery and Valkyrie standing with their backs to me, attempting to cuff a man who was struggling to escape.

"Enough of this." Valkyrie said and wacked the man in the back of his neck, making him fall unconscious so that she could cuff his hands behind his back.

"It's annoying when they struggle." She explained to Skulduggery.

"That may be, but now we have to wait for him to wake up before we can question him." He replied

"Well we can't question him if he's not-… Sam?"

"I'm pretty sure we could. Seeing as he isn't Sam and we're going to."

"What? No, Sam's right behind you."

He turned and saw me standing in the same spot where I had appeared just moments before as I hadn't moved this whole time.

"How did you? But you were… We just… Huh?" Valkyrie stuttered

"More importantly." Skulduggery added. "How did you manage to sneak up on me? Not just anyone can sneak up on me."

Valkyrie ignored him and rushed over to me. "Are you hurt? Where did you disappear to? How did you escape?"

"I'm fine, I went home."

"You went… home?"

"Sorry."

"I don't… what?"

I could tell Valkyrie was confused, and opened my mouth to explain but was interrupted by Skulduggery.

"She's a teleporter."

Valkyrie's head flipped between Skulduggery and me like she was watching a tennis match.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." I replied. "But how did you know?" I asked Skulduggery, "I didn't even know till a few moments ago."

"Like I said, not just anyone can sneak up on me."

Valkyrie glared at him. "You knew all along didn't you?"

"I suspected."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it was only a suspicion."

"Why is it such a big deal?" I asked, "I mean, it's pretty cool to discover a new talent but there's got to be loads of teleporters right?"

"Actually, including you, there are now 2." Valkyrie responded

"What?!"

"They are a rarity these days, and I think you may be rarer still." Skulduggery added

"Me? Why?"

"You are also an elemental, teleporters usually develop their powers naturally and quite young, unlike other sorcerers who choose a type of magic and learn it."

"But I became an elemental before I learned to teleport."

"Exactly, that's why you're different."

"Because I have two abilities? But Valkyrie is an elemental and necromancer."

"Yes, that is also rare, and she will have to pick one over the other very soon, just as you will."

"Why?"

"There is a thing called the surge that happens to every sorcerer, and it kind of… binds their magic to one style." Valkyrie explained.

"Oh, ok." I said, I was a bit disappointed; both these powers were amazing, how could I choose just one?

"So who is this other teleporter? Will they teach me how to use this power?"

"Let's see." Skulduggery answered, pulling out his phone and sending a quick text. Within a few minutes, a boy with ridiculous hair appeared in front of me.

"Fletcher," Skulduggery said. "This is Sam Caprice, she's a teleporter."

"Seriously? Hey that's great." He turned to Skulduggery and Valkyrie, "Why did you call me all the way from Australia for this?"

Valkyrie laughed, "You're a teleporter Fletcher, Australia is a few seconds away, don't act like it's a big deal."

"Whatever." He grumbled.

"What's a matter? Upset that you're not the last teleporter anymore?" Valkyrie asked in a mocking tone.

"No. Shut up."

Valkyrie laughed. "Oh my god, you are."

"Whatever." He said, before turning to me. "So you're a teleporter too? That's cool."

"Yeah I um… what's up with your hair?"

Valkyrie laughed as Fletcher ran a hand through his hair, he obviously thought it was a complement.

"Now that the introductions are done" Skulduggery interrupted, "Fletcher, we need you to train Sam here, of course we would rather entrust her to someone more mature and responsible, but you're the only teleporter we have."

"Gee thanks."

I looked at him. "He's going to train me? What about my training with you guys?"

"_They've_ been training you?" Fletcher asked, sounding stunned.

"Just a little, you know, basic elemental stuff." I replied

"Wait, you're an elemental? I thought you were a teleporter?"

"She's both Fletch, it's not impossible." Valkyrie said, rolling her eyes. "So can you train her?"

"Yeah, I think I can do that." He said with a grin. "From now on, you will call me Boss."

"I'm not calling you that."

"How about sensei?"

"No."

"Master?"

"Hell no."

"Well, then you can call me gorgeous." He said as he struck a pose.

I could only laugh as Valkyrie punched him in the arm.

"Ow! Hey! I was only kidding, come on Sam, let's get started."

Then before I could react, Fletcher grabbed my hand and suddenly the field disappeared and we were standing in a living room.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Australia."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, I figured if I'm gonna train you, then I'm gonna do it on my turf."

"And where in Australia are we?"

"Oh, this is my place."

"You live here?"

"Yup. Home sweet home."

I realised we were still holding hands and stepped away, "So what's our first lesson?"

"Oh, um… let's see… I wasn't exactly prepared."

"You know we can do this another time, it's not fair to just spring this on you."

"Nah it's fine, I wasn't doing anything anyway. Let's see... How about I just explain the concept of teleportation?"

"Alright then." I said, sitting on the sofa. "Let's get started."


	21. Alligators?

"Well?" Valkyrie asked, looking at Skulduggery.

"Hmm?"

"She's a teleporter."

"Oh, yes I noticed that. Good for her."

Valkyrie sighed, "Aren't you worried?"

"Why would I be worried?"

"She's a teleporter, and she just _happened_ to run into Eliza Scorn and China Sorrows in the one place on earth there can be a portal to bring the Faceless Ones into this world, a portal that can only be opened by a teleporter."

"That was quite a coincidence."

"You said you didn't believe in coincidences."

"Did I?"

"Yes. You did."

"I'm sure I said that coincidences are common and sometimes just happen, you know, coincidentally."

"You never said that."

"I'm sure I must have, you just weren't listening."

Valkyrie sighed.

"OK, I know that she didn't even know she was a teleporter when that happened but I still think it's suspicious."

"And you have every right to be concerned. We know that Eliza is planning something to do with the Faceless Ones and using Dragonclaw and Meloncholia as a distraction to keep us occupied."

"So who do we go after?"

"Dragonclaw of course." He answered, as if that were obvious.

"Why? That's exactly what she wants us to do."

"Exactly, she'll never expect it."

Valkyrie frowned.

"You realise that makes no sense right?"

"Of course it does."

"Maybe in your wacked out head." She muttered under her breath.

"We don't want Eliza to know that we know about her plans, otherwise she'll change what she's planning, and then we won't know. So we're just going to act like we don't know for now. Besides, at the moment, she isn't posing a threat, while Meloncholia could be real trouble."

"I guess you're right."

"I'm always right."

"I have a hard time believing that, especially after that incident with the alligators…"

"Anyone would have thought they were an exhibit, I was certain they were stuffed."

"Why would they have been an exhibit? We weren't in a museum, we were in a dungeon!"

"But it all ended up being great fun right?"

"One of them bit my leg!"

"Well at least no one got hurt."

"It. Bit. My. Leg."

"Are you still going on about that? Come on we have work to do." He said and looked down at their captive hostage who had been watching the argument.

"Oh, you've finally noticed me have you?" he said

"When did you regain consciousness?" Valkyrie asked.

"Just before that kid with the stupid hair disappeared with the girl." He replied.

"And what exactly is it you want with her?" Skulduggery asked

"Who said we want her?"

"Don't play dumb."

"I'm not playing."

"Yeah, you're probably right about that one."

"What do you-?"

"Are you working for Eliza Scorn?" Skulduggery interrupted.

"What if I am?"

Skulduggery sighed. "Listen, just cooperate and things may work out for you."

"You mean we make a deal? You give me something and I tell you what I know?"

"Actually I was thinking something like, you tell us what you know and we don't pummel you into the dirt."

He glared at Skulduggery. "I know all about you, Skeleton Detective, you don't scare me."

"If I don't scare you," Skulduggery answered, leaning in closer, "Then you don't know anything about me."

Valkyrie saw a shiver of fear run down his spine, he was trying to put on a brave face and obviously failing.

"Now." Skulduggery continued, straightening up and looking down at the man. "Why don't you start by telling us who you are, who you work for, and what you came here to do."


	22. Cover ups

"So basically, you're not moving. The world is moving around _you_." Fletcher said, in what I supposed he thought was a dramatic voice.

"That's a little hard to grasp, but I get the idea."

"Good, but you really only need to know the important stuff if you're planning on moving something really big, or a lot of people in one go."

"Well, so far I've only just teleported myself; I've never taken anyone with me." _A Hollow Man doesn't count right?_

"Do you want to try it? I swear it's no different than just moving yourself difficulty wise. In fact, it's possible to accidentally teleport someone along with you if they're touching you."

I thought back to the Hollow Man I had accidentally brought back with me to my room, and the pile of ashes that I had left in the middle of my floor. I groaned.

"Huh? What's the matter?" Fletcher asked

"My mum is going to kill me."

"Because you left the country without permission?" he asked with a slight smirk.

"Well there's that too I guess, no one in my family knows that I'm a sorcerer, _I_ didn't even know till a few days ago."

"Seriously? You've only been a sorcerer for a few days and you're already teleporting and doing..." he waved his hands around, "magic stuff?"

I laughed, "Yeah. I must just be a fast learner." I checked my watch. It was 8:30

"Oh my god! How did it get so late?!" I looked out the window, "but it's still sunny?"

"You're in Australia remember? Time zones."

"Oh, right. Well I should probably go, my mum will be home any minute."

Fletcher sighed. "You don't seem to get the whole point of being a teleporter."

"Huh?"

"Do I really need to explain?"

"Maybe a little."

"How about instead I'll show you." He grabbed my hand. "Teleport to your house."

"I... uh, ok."

And suddenly we were standing in my room, "Hey! I think I'm getting better at this! I didn't need to concentrate so hard, I just thought about it and now we're here!"

"That's how it's supposed to be, I'm just an amazing teach-" he paused and looked at his feet.

"What is it?"

"What the hell am I standing in?"

I looked down, we were right on top of the Hollow Man ashes.

"Oh. Um... it's... ash."

"Why is there a pile of ash in your room?"

"Well, the first time I teleported, I came here and I kinda accidentally brought a Hollow Man with me, then I just sorta freaked and set him on fire." I explained.

"Right." He said, looking around my room. "Girls aren't very tidy are they?"

"Shut up, you're place isn't any better." I retorted.

"At least I don't have cremated remains on my carpet."

"I was going to vacuum it up but I had to get back!"

"Tsk tsk." He said wagging a finger at me.

"Fine, I'll vacuum it now. God, I didn't realise you were so fussy."

"I'm not fussy, I just think it's weird that the first time I see your place it's covered in-"

He was interrupted as we heard the front door open.

"Becca, I'm home." I heard my mum call from the lounge.

"Ok, you should probably go now." I said to Fletcher.

He raised an eyebrow at me, "Becca huh? So I guess Sam Caprice is your taken name."

"Yeah, big deal, now go."

"But I want to meet your mum."

"Hell no. What do you think she would say to find some random guy in my room standing on a pile of ashes?"

"Hey, the ashes are your fault." He said.

"But I still have no way to explain any of this."

"Then she won't see the ashes, come on I want to say hi." He said as he started for the door

I quickly grabbed him and we teleported back to his house. He looked at me, surprised. I stuck my tongue out at him and then vanished again.

"Hey mum." I said as I stepped out of my room and closed the door behind me.

"Hi hun, what did you get up to today?"

"Not much. Went out for a bit, but that was it."

"Have you had dinner?"

"Yeah, I had some pizza."It was true, though she wasn't to know that I had it in Italy.

"Well I'm pretty tired, I'll be in my room."

"Oh, do you have your uniform sorted?"

"Huh?"

"Today's Saturday, School starts again on Monday."

Oh crap. This school holiday seemed to just shoot by so quickly.

"Yeah, it's in my wardrobe."

"All right, goodnight."

"Night."

I went back in my room and almost shouted in surprise when I saw Fletcher sitting on my bed.

"Why did you come back? Get out."

"But I never got to explain what I was trying to say."

"What?"

"You don't get the fun part of being a teleporter."

"What are you talking about?"

"Listen, you don't need to worry about being home late because home is literally a second away, and now that your mum has seen you and thinks you're in your room..." he reached out and grabbed my hand, "you can go anywhere."

I stared in amazement; we were standing at the very top of a huge building, the wind whipped past us and I shivered.

"Where are we?"

"Paris."

I looked around, "If we're in Paris then where's the Eiffel Tower?"

"You're standing on it."

I laughed. "Ok, that's pretty cool, but why are we in Paris?"

"So the lesson can continue."

"You are such a sneak."

He grinned, "Well in order to teleport somewhere, you have to have already been there yourself, so let's get you to as many places as we can."

I grinned back, I was starting to like this.


	23. Something Wicked this Way Comes

Valkyrie stepped out of the alley way and took a deep breath, She hated coming to murder scenes, but at least this one had no blood.

Skulduggery stepped out beside her.

"No blood, no wounds of any kind, no sign of a struggle." She listed off what she had noticed.

"And where have we seen that before?"

She frowned. "You don't think… Meloncholia?"

"The only person to be able to draw out life, so she's a definite possibility, she also has a motive."

"A motive?"

"This was obviously sorcerers work, but the victims are just innocent civilians, no ties to magic at all. So my theory is that she was just building her strength with people who can't fight back."

"Well then, how do we find her?"

He paused and thought for a moment. "Based on the last two murders and this one, it looks like she's heading north, and just killing on the way to keep up her strength. She's also only killing in small numbers, probably thanks to Doctor Nye, who removed or undid all of the symbols carved into her body so she isn't as strong as she was."

"She may be weaker, but she's taking these peoples' lives the way she did when she was death bringer." Said Valkyrie "How could she do that?"

"I'm not sure,"

Valkyrie clenched her fists. "You don't think Nye lied do you? He, I mean, it could have left some of her symbols intact." One hand gently traced over her heart where Nye had cut her open, that part she was ok with, the part where he tried to dissect her, not so much.

"No, it had no reason to, and we also had other sorcerers look over her to check that Nye had done it right. We'll just have to find Meloncholia and Dragonclaw."

"Do you think they'll know what Eliza is up to?"

"I doubt it, she has no reason to share information with Dragonclaw, and as long as she is supplying him with what he needs, then he probably won't bother to ask. However, even though he would have no information for us, he is still our link to Eliza."

"Ok, so you're saying when we find Meloncholia, we find Dragonclaw and then Eliza. I guess that makes sense."

"Of course it does, I'm brilliant."

"And so modest."

"Of course."


	24. Back to School

I groaned and fell onto my bed, I was completely exhausted. I had travelled further in the last few days than I had ever gone in my life. It was amazing, and exciting and oh so tiring. I closed my eyes for what felt like a minute and before I knew it, it was already morning.

"Get up! You'll be late!"

I opened my eyes and checked the time, 7:30 AM. What could I be late for at this time?

Oh. School.

Crap.

I looked over at my unfinished homework sitting on my desk and sighed. I know it's my fault I never did it, but I choose to blame Fletcher.

I forced myself upright and stretched, if I didn't get up now I'd miss the bus. I paused, I'm a teleporter now, I don't need to catch the bus, in fact, I don't need to leave until school actually starts. I smiled at that thought, and lay back down, until mum came into my room and pulled the blankets off me.

"Get up or you'll be late, I have to go to work now so there's money for the bus on the kitchen table." I heard my mother call from outside my door.

"Mmhm."

Reluctantly, I rolled out of bed and pulled on my school uniform. A white blouse and black pencil skirt with black flats. By the time I went out to breakfast, my mother had left, I eyed the money on the table, It was meant for the bus, but I didn't need it, then again if I didn't take the money, mum would wonder why. I guiltily pocketed the note and then searched the kitchen for my favourite cereal.

After a leisurely breakfast I packed my bag and checked the clock, classes started in 5 minutes, but of course that was no problem, the next thing I knew, I was standing behind the school shed, I looked around to make sure no one had seen me arrive and stepped out, grinning. I definitely get what Fletcher meant by the perks of being a teleporter.

I barely paid any attention in class, so much had happened in such a short time and it was hard to focus. During lunch my phone rang, it was Fletcher.

"Hey where are you? I thought we would have another lesson today."

"I'm at school, I guess you wouldn't have known that since Australia has different school times."

"You're at school? Seriously? Why?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because I actually want to have an education."

"Why don't you use a reflection?"

"What?" I must have heard him wrong. "What do you mean?"

"I'll get the instructions for you. Meet me at your place in 5 minutes."

"I can't Fletcher, I'm at school."

"It'll only take a second, and you'll thank me, I promise."

I sighed. "Fine, 5 minutes."

I quickly hung up the phone and returned it to my bag.

"Who was that?"

"Huh?" I spun around to see Elishia standing behind me. "Oh, hey Twiggy."

"Well? Who were you talking to?"

"Oh, no one important." Damn it, I was lying to her again.

"Listen uh, about what happened.."

"Yeah, I'll explain later but I uh.. have to use the bathroom."

"Oh, ok."

I quickly hurried off before she could ask any more questions and found an empty bathroom, I locked the stall door before teleporting to my room.

"Ok Fletcher, what do you want?"

"Nice to see you too."

"Seriously, I can't just teleport away every lunch time, my friends will wonder where I've gone."

"Ok, I'll make it quick. Here." He said and handed me a piece of chalk and some paper with a strange symbol carved on it. "draw this on your wardrobe mirror."

"What are you-"

"just do it."

"Fine fine, geez."

I drew the symbol then looked at him. "Why did I do that."

"Now repeat after me, surface speak, surface feel, surface think, surface real."

"Seriously Fletcher, what are you-"

"Just do it."

I sighed and then repeated his words.

"Now touch the mirror."

I touched the mirror, then as my reflection stepped out of the mirror, I gasped in shock and punched it in the face.

"What are you doing!?" Fletcher yelled.

"I don't know, I panicked, what just happened?"

"You idiot." He laughed, "Oh, you're going to feel that later."

"What are you talking about, what is going on?"

"I'm a perfect copy of you." The reflection spoke.

"Oh my god it has my voice."

Fletcher was still laughing, "I can't believe you hit her."

"Shut up" I growled, "you didn't tell me it… she, would come alive. Why did you make me do this?"

"so that you don't have to go to school."

"What?"

It was the reflection who answered, "I have your personality and all your memories, no one except a highly trained sorcerer could tell that I am a reflection."

I peered at the reflection, "If you know what I know, then how did you know that when I didn't."

Fletcher sighed, "just be happy ok?"

"But isn't this… cheating? I mean using this instead of going to school?"

"Not really. I mean, Not if you don't think it is."

"But what's the point in sending my reflection to school instead of me? Then I won't know anything, I might as well not go at all."

"That's the best part! You get all the reflections memories when they return to the mirror. Just touch the glass when they step in."

The reflection stepped inside the mirror and I cautiously tapped the glass, my reflection became still as my confused and worried face appeared, memories entered my mind, and I flinched as I remembered stepping out of the mirror as my own fist came flying toward my face.

"Oh god, I punched myself."

Fletcher started laughing again.


	25. Trial Run

I was curious to try out the reflection, so I teleported back into the bathroom stall with my reflection just as the bell rang signalling that class was starting.

"Listen," I whispered to the reflection. "Just act naturally. Um… don't let anyone know about magic or… you know that you're not me."

"I'm a perfect copy of you, I know how to act and what to do. Just leave it to me."

"Ok, um... here." I said and gave it my phone. "I'll be with Fletcher so just txt his number if you need to contact me."

"Ok."

"Seriously, just txt if something happens, I'll teleport in and we'll swap places so I can deal with it."

"There will be no need, I have your knowledge and memories so I will deal with any situation the way you would."

"Oh, right… ok well… bye."

I hesitated a moment longer before teleporting away. I stepped out into the sunlight of Italy and saw Fletcher standing there with his ridiculous hair and two dripping ice creams in his hands.

"Are you sure she… it… the reflection will be fine?"

"Definitely" he replied and held out a cone.

I accepted it gratefully, but was still worried. "Do you use a reflection? How do you know so much?"

"I know so much because I'm amazing; I'm your teacher after all."

I rolled my eyes, I seemed to do that a lot around him.

"And no, I don't actually use a reflection, I don't need to, but Valkyrie does, that's how I know about them."

I breathed a sigh of relief; _if Valkyrie uses a reflection then they must be fine._

"Ok, I guess it'll be all right then."  
>"Oh, you relax when I say that Valkyrie uses one, but not when <em>I <em>tell you it's fine."

I laughed, "You get jealous rather easily don't you?"

"I do not." He replied defensively.

"You were jealous of me for being a teleport because you weren't the last one anymore."

"Was not."

"_And_ you were jealous that I'm also an elemental."

"But you're not going to continue with elemental magic are you? You're going to continue being a teleporter?"

"Oh? So now you don't mind being the last of the teleporters?" I said with a smirk.

"What? I never…"

I laughed, "Besides I haven't actually decided yet, I mean, teleporting is amazing but elemental magic is just… also amazing. I mean, it's a tough choice, I don't know."

"Hey no pressure, you don't have to choose for a while now anyway."

"Really?"

"Uh… I don't actually know."  
>"Thanks, great help." I replied sarcastically. "Anyway, what was it you wanted to do?"<p>

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I remembered this really awesome mountain in Turkey that I thought would be really cool to… what? Why are you laughing?"

"You pulled me out of school, created a copy of me, made me punch myself in the face, all so that you can show me a rock?"

"Well when you put it like that…"  
>I rolled my eyes. "You are such a dork."<p>

I arrived home and waited in my room for my reflection to return, knowing that Valkyrie used one was comforting but I was still worried.

I jumped up as she, it, the reflection, walked through the door.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Uh… how was school?"

"There were no incidents. Are you ready to resume your life?"

"Yeah… ok."

The reflection stepped into the mirror and I tapped the glass, the memories from today came flooding into my mind, it was a weird experience.

While I was in Italy, I was also in maths class. I mean, I wasn't but I could remember it. It was all a bit confusing. I sorted through the memories and noticed that Elishia had caught up with me… her, after school, so she could ask about what happened that day with the mugger.

I groaned, and tapped the mirror, then waited for my reflection to step out.

"Why didn't you txt to say that Elishia was asking about that day?"

"There was no need, I handled it the way you would have."

"By telling her the truth!"

"Was that wrong? I left out the part where you used magic."

I hesitated, it was true that she hadn't mentioned magic, just that there was a mugger attacking a lady and that I ran to help.

"Well… no."

"Then what's the problem? There was no reason to lie."

"The only reason I got hurt was because he attacked me, and the only reason he attacked me was because I punched him in the face, and the only reason I did THAT was because… I don't know. Elishia is probably wondering that too."

"You do know why you did it, it was because you had just discovered your abilities and were overconfident."

"I wasn't… shut up."

The reflection shrugged, "I know what you were thinking that day because I have all your memories."

"But I… don't tell me what I think."

"Very well."

"So uh… that was all."

The reflection turned around and stepped back into the mirror, I tapped the glass and suddenly relived the conversation again, from another point of view I could see how crazy I sounded. _Why didn't I want her telling Elishia the truth? As long as she didn't mention magic then it's fine._

I let out a sigh of relief and fell onto my bed, _I guess the reflection isn't so bad after all._


	26. An Early Wake up Call

The next day I awoke to a loud noise, I swung my arm out and hit the snooze on my alarm but then realised it was my cell phone, I looked at the screen and saw that Valkyrie was calling.

"Hey Val, what's up?"

"Sam? Sam!"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"You're ok?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"You need to get here. NOW."

"Uh… sure, where are you?"

I heard muffled speaking before she spoke again. "Meet us in the clearing in the forest. But don't teleport into the open, go somewhere in the trees."

"Yeah... ok, what's going on?"

"I'll explain everything soon."

"Yeah but-" I was interrupted by the dial tone as she hung up. I stared at my phone. _Well that was weird._ I quickly jumped out of bed and as I was pulling on a pair of jeans I paused. _Crap I have School!_ I yanked off the jeans and hastily put on my school uniform then tapped the mirror, my reflection stepped out as I was getting out of my uniform.

"You have to go to school again."

"Yes, I know."

"Oh, right."

I put on the first shirt I could find and searched for some shoes. _What was so important?_

"Here."

I turned to see my reflection holding out a pair of sneakers.

"Thanks." I accepted them and put them on, then checked the time. It was five in the morning.

"Damn it Valkyrie, why so early." I muttered as I tied the laces. "Ok." I said addressing my reflection, "You know why I have to go but I still want a way for you to keep in touch. I'll be taking my phone so see if you can find my old one. I think it's around here somewhere, take the bus money and buy a top up as soon as you can."

"Ok"

"It's too early to be up yet so just… lie in bed and pretend you're asleep, until it's time for school."

The reflection nodded then climbed into bed and shut its eyes. It looked forced and unnatural but I didn't have time to teach it how to sleep. If that were even possible.

I grabbed a jacket and teleported into the trees near the clearing. It was still dark, sunrise wouldn't be for another hour or so. I stretched and looked around, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. I was alone, I strained my ears but couldn't hear anything. _This is weird._ I cautiously walked out of the trees and stood at the edge of the clearing.

"Valkyrie?" I whispered, "Skulduggery? Where are you guys?"

There was a noise to my left and I jumped, startled by the sound. I clicked my fingers to summon a flame and held it in my hand, using it to light the area.

_Where are they?_

Suddenly one hand grabbed me around the waist and pulled me backwards while another covered my mouth. _Oh hell no, I am not being kidnapped for the THIRD time._ I kicked backwards into my attackers shin and swung my arm back to press the flame in my hand into their stomach. I heard a groan and the hands released me, as soon as I was free I ran into the forest without looking back. In the darkness I stumbled over tree roots and plants whipped at my legs, but I wanted to make sure I was out of sight before I teleported. I paused and leant against a tree to catch my breath, my attacker was gone and the forest was silent. _Where the hell are Skulduggery and Valkyrie? _I went for my phone but it was gone. _Just brilliant, I must have dropped it. _I waited to make sure that the assailant was gone before silently retracing my steps, scanning the ground for my phone, I spotted it and quickly grabbed it, then went to teleport, but stopped. Valkyrie had called me here and it sounded urgent, so I was going to stay until I found her.

I crept silently through the trees, keeping an eye out for anything or anyone, when I heard footsteps, I froze, and hurried up a tree as quickly as I could, then held my breath as a dark figure stepped into view. They paused and looked around, then continued past. I let out a sigh of relief at how close they had come to finding me. _But who were they? And why are they here?_ I waited to make sure they were gone before beginning my descent from the tree, I had to find Skulduggery and Valkyrie, they would explain. The branch I was holding snapped and I tumbled out of the tree, landing on the ground with a thud.

I groaned, that was not as quiet as I hoped.

I heard a soft chuckle behind me and spun around. To see Skulduggery leaning against a tree_, _I let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Were you there the whole time?"

He took off his hat and brushed something from the rim, his skull gleaming in the moonlight. "Just arrived actually, don't worry, I didn't see your graceful departure from that tree."

I scowled at him. "What is going on?"

He put his hat back on, and his voice grew stern."There is an assassin after you."

"There's a… what?"

"An assassin, you know, someone hired to kill people."

"I know what an assassin is."

"Oh good, so we're on the same page then."

"Why the hell did you call me to a forest at five o'clock in the morning?!"

"Because… there's an assassin after you." He said, as if it were obvious.

"That's not a very good explanation."

"We know that there is someone in the Sanctuary who is not on our side, and that was how Dragonclaw was able to get to you in your hometown."

"Do you think it was the guy I heard talking to Eliza?"

"Most likely, and if he has access to you then you're not safe at home."

"What about my family?"

"They'll be fine, as long as you're not home, then the assassin won't go to your house."

"But I _am_ home… kinda. I sorta have a reflection standing in for me."

He sighed, "Fletcher?"

"Yeah."

"I'll get him later, but this might actually be helpful, this assassin, we don't know his identity yet, will most likely recognise it as a reflection and leave it alone… more or less."

"More or less?" I repeated, that didn't sound to reassuring.

"Well I guess we'll see."

"But how do you know there is an assassin after me? And why would someone hire a trained killer to get me? What have I done?"

"It's not safe to talk much more." He said with a lowered voice, "I think they're already keeping tabs on you, you're phone may be tapped."

"Well that explains how they knew I was here." I muttered.

"What was that?"

"Oh, some guy grabbed me before, but I got away, if that was him then he's not much of an assassin."

"Why didn't you mention this?"

I shrugged, "Like I said, I got away, no big deal. Plus you were talking too much for me to say much anyway."

"Give me your jacket."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it."

"Fine." I reluctantly removed my jacket and handed it to him. A cold wind hit me and I shivered.

Skulduggery inspected my jacket closely while he spoke. "If that was your assassin then they probably did tap your phone, and they aren't so clumsy as to let you go like that, they probably left a bug on you, some sort of microphone or… ah ha."

He held out his hand and I stared down at a tiny black dot sitting in the centre of his bony palm.

"And that is…?"

"Some sort of tracking device."

"Right, so... can I have my jacket back now?"

"Oh right, here." He said and handed it to me.

I quickly grabbed it back and put it on.

"You should probably stay with us for now, if not for protection then at least as bait so we can catch this mysterious assassin."

"Gee thanks." I replied sarcastically.

"Valkyrie is still searching for you, we should probably go tell her she can stop now."

He headed further into the forest and I followed close behind.

"Your shirt is inside out by the way."

I felt my cheeks go red and I quickly zipped my jacket up to my chin.


	27. Assassin

We met up with Valkyrie just as the sun was rising, she was sitting cross legged by a large tree and looked angry.

"You could have sent me a message telling me I could stop looking."

"And let you miss the chance for some great detective work? Never."

I grinned as Valkyrie rolled her eyes at him.

"So Sam, you're ok?"

"Well I had a little run in with the assassin, but it was fine."

"You what?!"

"Yeah, he just bugged me." I turned to Skulduggery "Why didn't he kill me? He had the chance to."

"I'm not sure, he is a master assassin after all so it would have been easy. It's possible his orders were to capture you alive, but then he would've knocked you unconscious and carried you away."

"We could be wrong, maybe he's not after her at all? Maybe he's after someone close to her." Valkyrie suggested

"That's possible too, if it's someone after one of _us_ then the mole at the Sanctuary must have informed him that she is with us some of the time."

"But I'm not with you guys often enough for that to work." I interjected.

"You have been recently, so they may not know the circumstances." Valkyrie answered, "It is a possibility, after all, we've been helping you with your elemental magic so anyone would assume that we're spending time together."

"Ok then, so they're after you and not me?"

I saw Skulduggery and Valkyrie share a glance. I sagged.

"He _is_ after me isn't he?"

"Yes, I'm sorry."

I stared at the ground, _I guess I'll have to let my reflection stay in my place for a little while longer. _

"Do you have any idea why?"

"We think so." Valkyrie spoke up. "It's because you're a teleporter."

"But… what about Fletcher?"

"He may be in danger too, but he's safe in Australia, while you're right in the perfect position."

"And you are still new to magic, and so that makes you vulnerable." Skulduggery added.

I took a deep breath and processed the information. "Ok, so who hired this assassin?"

"There was a case like this some years ago. Teleporters were being killed left and right, that's why Fletcher was the last, at least until you showed up."

I gasped. "But… why?"

"You know of the Faceless Ones, well they are currently trapped in another dimension, and there's a thing called an Isthmus Anchor, it's a sort of link between that dimension and ours. And only a teleporter can use it to open the portal."

"Do I have to die for it to open? Why are they trying to kill me?"

"Actually, it is most likely someone who _doesn't_ want the Faceless Ones to enter this world, they must think they are keeping the world safe by killing you."

"But I would never open the portal."

"We know that." Valkyrie said quietly, "but that was what Fletcher thought too."

I looked at her. Stunned. "Fletcher opened it?"

"He didn't want to, but he had no choice."

I took another deep breath. "Ok, so I have one master assassin trying to kill me, A necromancer and his zombies wanting revenge against me, and another group of crazies who want me to help them end the world. Is that about right?"

Skulduggery nodded. "Oh, and don't forget about whoever hired the assassin, they might try other ways to kill you."

"Oh, great."

"But you also have us." Valkyrie added.

"Thanks." I smiled, that was a little reassuring, "Here." I handed my phone to Skulduggery. "It's bugged right? Do you think you could un-bug it?"

"Dragonclaw had her phone for a while didn't he? Do you think he bugged it?"

"No, it's unlikely that he would hire an assassin. No, I think that-"

Suddenly Skulduggery dived on top of me and pinned me to the ground, as a small dart shot past where I was just standing. Valkyrie spun around and sent spears of shadows into the trees with a flick of her wrist.

"What the-?" I yelled

"You need to teleport away as soon as I've let go of you." Skulduggery explained in a hurried voice. "The assassin is somewhere nearby, we'll try to catch him, just go somewhere far from here until we call."

"Ok."

Skulduggery jumped up and I teleported, thinking of the first place that came to mind, the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the first place Fletcher had taken me.

But as I teleported, I felt a hand close around my ankle, I heard a crack as my bone snapped and screamed, in a panic I changed direction and found myself lying in a desert, under the great mountains in Turkey.

I blinked back tears of pain as the agony of my broken ankle hit me. I saw my attacker sitting next to me, still one hand firmly grasping my ankle, and looking a little queasy.

He was a huge, bald, and had strange tattoos running down his left arm and a small bag hanging from his hip, I assumed that was where he kept his weapons, like the dart that had come so close to my neck.

I tried to shake him off but he clung to my leg, and my ankle flared in pain so I sat still and tried to catch my breath. He shook his head as if to clear it and then looked around. I realised that I had brought him with me to a deserted area. That was a mistake.

He smiled as he noticed this, then looked at me and his smile fell, he looked confused, tormented, conflicted.

I clicked my fingers and summoned a flame, holding it in what I hoped was a menacing fashion.

He looked even more surprised at that, he must not have known that I was also an elemental.

"Who are you?" I asked, trying to sound threatening.

He didn't respond, he looked so confused. I thought about blasting him with air to get him off me, but his vice-like grip was still tight around my injured ankle and he would probably drag me along with him.

"Who are you?" I asked again. "Are you trying to kill me?"

He hesitated. "No."

"Then why did you attack me?"

"Well… I mean, I was going to… but now… the circumstances are different."

"What's changed?"

"You."

"No… I'm still the same, though my ankle's a little... backwards. Thanks for that by the way." I grimaced in pain as I saw the damage to my ankle and tried to ignore it.

"Yeah. Sorry about that. I… I never knew it was you. I thought… I mean, I was told that… I can't believe it. Of all the people in the world, _you're_ Sam Caprice."

"What do you mean? Who are you?"

"Look, just… just promise me, you aren't planning on opening the portal."

"What? You mean the portal that would release the Faceless Ones? Of course not."

"You swear?"

This was odd, he was acting completely different, it almost seemed like he was begging.

"I swear, I know that the Faceless Ones would destroy the world, and seeing as how I live in that world, that would be a bad thing for me."

He sighed in relief.

"Who are you?" I repeated my question, _this guy is _really_ odd._

He hesitated, "That's a little hard to explain."

"Try."

"Ok, but you're in for a shock."

I extinguished the flame still in my hand and watched in amazement as brown hair flowed from his head, his body slowly shrunk and the tattoos faded. His entire facial features were reconstructed and suddenly I was staring at a very familiar looking face.

"Elishia?

"Hi Becca."

We sat there, staring at each other, both just as confused as the other.

"So... um, you're the assassin."

"Yes."

"The one sent after me."

"Yes."

"And you can change your face."

"Yes."

"Right." I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "What the hell?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what? Trying to kill me? Or for being some murderous assassin all this time and not telling me?"

She looked a little taken aback, "You can't talk, Miss Teleporter. How long has this been going on? And you're an elemental too? How is that even possible? I guess that story about the mugger was a lie to cover up whatever you were actually doing, I know all about the Skeleton Detective, he's dangerous and so is his partner. You shouldn't… be around them."

"Oh yes. _He's_ the dangerous one, not the person sitting in front of me who bugged me, broke my ankle and tried to kill me with some kind of poisoned dart."

"I was told some girl named Sam Caprice was going to open the portal, and that she would be meeting with Pleasant and Cain in the forest. I never dreamed it would have been you."

"Who the hell told you that? I'm not going to be opening any portals."

"Well I know that _now_. That's why I tracked you."

"You could have killed me! That dart came this close to my neck!" I exclaimed

"The dart wasn't poisoned! It just would have knocked you out for a bit."

"And the tracker you planted on my jacket?"

"I wanted to track you first, to make sure."

I stared at her in disbelief. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Elishia."

"No, Elishia was my friend from school who wouldn't hurt a fly. You're… a murderer. And you can change your appearance, so how do I know you're not just impersonating her?"

She sighed. "About two years ago we were out in town and you tripped and fell in a pile of dog crap. So you ditched your clothes, and me being the amazing friend I am, ditched mine as well and we spent the rest of the day in just our singlets and tights."

"Yeah well… that doesn't prove-"

"We shared a lot, do you really want me to go through all your embarrassing moments that only I know about?"

I glared at her.

"Remember that time when we had a sleepover and you told me you had a _huge _crush on that guy from school? He was a year above us and never even noticed you, so the next day at school, I pretended to drown in the pool and you saved me."

I laughed. "It got his attention, and half the school plus an ambulance."

"Yeah… I think we took it too far."

"You're… really Elishia? You're Twiggy?"

"I'm sorry."

"Me too."

"You shouldn't be apologizing. I'm the one who attacked you."

"Shut up, I was in the moment."

She laughed. "My taken name is Rosette Fouette, I'm a shape shifter and hired for undercover work."

"I'm Sam Caprice. Teleporter and elemental, uh… not really hired for anything."

"It's nice to meet you Sam." She said with a smile

"Likewise Rosette." I replied. "So now that you're not trying to kill me… do you mind letting go of my leg now? it's a little painful."

"Oh, sorry." She said and let go, then looked around. "And do you mind telling me where we are?"

"Turkey."

"Right."

"Maybe we should get back. Skulduggery and Valkyrie are probably thinking I'm dead."

"I guess you're right, though I'm not too eager to meet them."

"Relax, I'll explain everything to them."

"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about."


	28. The Truth Comes Out

Rosette helped me to my feet and supported me as I stood.

"Ok, I guess we should get back now."

"Wait just a second."

Her hair turned black and grew longer, her face changed into someone unrecognisable and her eyes turned green. Amazingly, her clothes also changed. From the brown clothes she was wearing to black pants and a shirt that fitted her much better than the larger outfit she had had on, though the pouch on her hip remained.

"Why are you changing?"

"I'm Rosette Fouette, no one else knows about Elishia. I'd prefer it to stay that way."

"But we can trust Skulduggery and Valkyrie."

"_You _can trust them, the only times I've ever met them was when they were firing bullets at me."

"You've fought them?" I groaned, "This won't be good then."

"I change my appearance every time, so they won't recognise me."

"Wait, why were you fighting them? I thought you were… I mean, they always try to save people from you know... the bad guys, if you were against them then…"

"It's not like that, we were fighting for a common goal, but just didn't realise it."

I sighed, _this might be more complicated than I thought._

* * *

><p>When we appeared we saw Skulduggery and Valkyrie arguing about something, as soon as they saw us, they both jumped into action but then paused when they noticed that the large man was gone, and instead I was leaning on a small thin girl.<p>

"What's going on?" Valkyrie asked as she extinguished the flame in her hand. "And who's this?"

"Uh… it's ok, she's not going to kill me now."

"She was going to kill you?" Valkyrie asked.

Rosette sighed, "I _told_ you, I was only going to capture you _alive_" she said, ignoring her

"Alive and damaged." I retorted

"I apologized about your ankle."

"Your ankle?" Valkyrie asked.

"It's broken." Skulduggery answered before I could. "We should probably get her to a doctor."

I groaned. "I don't know how I'm going to hide this one from my mum."

Valkyrie laughed. "Well then do we have a surprise for you."

I gingerly walked to the other side of the room and back, testing out my ankle. Amazingly enough, it was fine, still a little sore, but otherwise, it was completely healed, I fell into a chair and sighed.

"Thanks, it feels so much better."

I realised no one was paying attention to me, they were both staring at Rosette who was sitting calmly in the corner.

"Who are you?"

"Rosette Fouette."

"How did you and Sam meet in…" he turned to me, "where did you teleport to?"

"Turkey" I answered.

"Turkey!" he repeated to Rosette.

She sighed and looked at me, "I thought you were going to explain?"

"And she will, but we want to hear your side first."

She hesitated, I knew that her powers of shape shifting was secret she didn't want out, but she was trapped in a corner, there was no other explanation for how I met with her in Turkey unless she teleported with me.

"I teleported with her."

"To Turkey?"

"Yes."

"From the forest here in Roarhaven?"

"Yes."

"But we saw the assassin grab her ankle as she teleported, not this girl." Valkyrie spoke up.

"Unless this girl is the assassin." Skulduggery mused.

Rosette sighed, "You got me."

"What?" Valkyrie exclaimed, looking quite taken aback.

"A Shape shifter." Skulduggery said, more to himself than anyone else. "I didn't think there were any left."

"What do you mean?" I asked

"Well it has always been a rare talent, but then when a shape shifter was discovered everyone became paranoid, thinking their friends or family were being impersonated to get information. They were despised, more than the teleporters were."

"Teleporters were despised? Why?"

"People get jealous easily, and teleporting is another rare ability that they didn't like." He explained, before returning to Rosette.

"Is this your real face?"

"I see you are just as paranoid as everyone else then." She answered

"You were after Sam correct?"

"Yes."

"And now you're not, why is that?"

"Well it turns out, she's actually a friend."

"A friend?" Valkyrie repeated, looking between us. "I'm guessing neither of you knew the other was a sorcerer."

"Yeah, hence the mix up." Rosette said.

"Well, that mix up nearly cost Sam her life."

"I wasn't going to kill her."

"You just confessed to being her assassin!"

"I was hired to kill her, but only because I was told she was planning to open the portal to the Faceless Ones and had to be stopped, I was only given her name, and told that her phone was bugged, using this, I listened in on the conversation, gathered she would be in the forest and followed. But I've been lied to before, so I planted a tracker on her, I wanted to make sure she really was a teleporter and that she really was planning on opening the portal, then she met up with you and confirmed my first doubt, then I heard you talking about the portal and acted."

"Who hired you?"

"The whole thing was done anonymously, that's the main reason why I doubted the legitimacy of their information."

Skulduggery took off his hat and brushed some imaginary lint from the brim, before putting it back on. "It's a good thing you're motives are pure, otherwise Sam may be dead and you would be too."

"Of course, I would never hurt anyone without good reason."

"I don't see why you had to break her ankle, that seemed a little unnecessary." Valkyrie stated, she clearly didn't trust her.

"I apologised for that, sometimes I forget my strength, especially when I've changed form into someone stronger." She explained

"Likely story." I heard her mutter under her breath.

Skulduggery pulled me aside, "You're sure this is your friend?"

"Certain of it."

"Even after you saw her change her appearance?" Valkyrie asked

"Well, I did doubt her at first, thinking she was just impersonating her, but she proved it was her. I believe her."

"You know her by her given name?"

"Yes, and before you ask I can't give it to you."

"Understood."

He returned to Rosette, "You know of course that we will have a hard time trusting you, but you have given us some valuable information and we've confirmed you're not going to hurt Sam, however, I'm afraid we can't let you go just yet."

"You're worried my boss will find me, and now that I'm close to Sam it will be easier for me to kill her."

"Well, yes. You may have her convinced, but there's a reason shape shifters were untrustworthy."

"I understand."

"Well then," Skulduggery continued, "since there is obviously someone wanting Sam dead, I suggest she stay at Gordon's."

"I agree." Said Valkyrie "And Rosette will stay at yours?"

"No, I think we should all stay together."

Valkyrie sighed. "I thought you'd say that."

"Who's Gordon?" I asked, ignoring Valkyrie's obvious discontent for my friend.

"Valkyries uncle who sadly passed away several years ago." Skulduggery answered. "Just wait till you meet him."


	29. Gordon

We arrived at Gordon's house after a rather awkward car ride, where Valkyrie had tried to convince Rosette to show her real identity. I ignored Rosette's protests and stared in amazement at the grand house as we pulled into the drive.

"This place is huge, though I'm still a little worried about what you said earlier…"

"About Gordon? Relax, it's fine." Skulduggery said

I sighed, "You mean you were joking and he's not dead?"

"Oh uh… no, he's dead."

"So… you were joking when you said I was going to meet him?"

"… No."

"He's not a zombie is he? I've had enough of those to last me a lifetime…"

"No he's not a zombie," Valkyrie laughed as she got out of the car, "Relax, it's fine."

Valkyrie unlocked the door and we stepped inside, I looked around in admiration, "This place is amazing."

Rosette came in after us, followed by Skulduggery.

"Nice place." She said as she joined us,

Valkyrie glared at her and pulled me by the arm, "Come on Sam, I'll introduce you to Gordon."

I hesitated but let her push me upstairs, we entered a large impressive room filled with books, where inside stood a portly man, wearing brown slacks and a matching waistcoat over a shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms. Sandy hair perched atop his head, shot through with grey. He seemed familiar somehow, he turned and a smile broke out on his face.

"Ah, Stephanie, how have you been, and who's this?"

"Hi Uncle Gordon" she replied, "This is Sam, she'll be staying here for a while. Is that ok?"

"Of course it is, and you don't have to ask, this is your house after all."

"This is your house?" I asked

"Yeah, he left it to me in his will."

"Wait… so he _is_ dead… but he's… I'm confused."

Gordon laughed, "This here," he said, indicating to a brightly shining stone sitting in a golden cradle, "Is an echo stone, it's an imprint of my consciousness, so I still have my personality and memories."

"Like a reflection?" I asked

"Well no… unlike a reflection I have emotions and my own thoughts, and also, I'm not a physical thing, more like a hologram projected from the stone."

"Well that's better than what I had in mind" I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sam thought you were going to be a zombie." Valkyrie explained

"A zombie huh?"

"Well they said you were dead and that I was going to meet you… I didn't really know what else to think."

He laughed, "Well that certainly is one way to talk to a dead man."

"And I've already met two zombies... or should I say one and a half, so it seemed likely."

"Oh, that must be Scapegrace and the fellow with the ridiculous name."

"Thrasher."

"Yes that's it. Odd fellow, never actually met him of course, but Valkyrie has mentioned them once or twice. I've even considered making my next book about zombies, though I wouldn't base it on those two, they don't exactly fit the stereotype."

I suddenly realised why he looked so familiar. "Wait a second, I thought I recognised you! Are you Gordon Edgley? The author?"

He beamed, "Why yes I am."

"I've been a fan of yours for ages! I love all your books." I gushed. "You're amazing."

"Careful," Valkyrie warned, "His ego will overflow."

"Nonsense, always nice to meet a fan." He said, "I'd shake your hand but unfortunately I would go right through you."

"Wait till El- I mean, Rosette sees you!"

Valkyries tone grew stern. "Listen Sam, I don't know what she said to convince you but I don't trust her."

I sighed, "I know you don't like shape shifters, but she's been my friend for years, and she wasn't going to kill me, she just didn't want me opening the portal."

"Wait a second, a shape shifter? I didn't think there were any left in the world, and what's this portal about?" Gordon interrupted

"Sam's a teleporter, and someone hired an assassin to kill her, that assassin turned out to be a friend of Sam's called Rosette, and she said she was told that Sam was going to open the portal to the Faceless Ones dimension." Valkyrie explained

"But you would need an Isthmus Anchor for that" he said,

"And there isn't one that we know of, we've been looking, there's nothing left that could link to the dimension. Our theory is that whoever hired Rosette was just using this as an excuse, they obviously knew Rosette would only take someone out for a good reason and this seemed to fit."

"And this Rosette girl, where is she now?"

"Downstairs."

"I would love to meet her. Shape shifters are rare and I want to know how they work, even if she is a dangerous assassin."

"She's my friend." I interjected, "Not a dangerous assassin. She's not going to hurt me, and even if she wasn't my friend she still wouldn't, because I'm _not_ going to be opening any portals, I don't even have the… anchor thing."

"Well I don't trust her. She hasn't even shown me her real face."

"She's shown me."

"You don't know that was her _real_ face. It may be the face you know, but not the face she was born with."

I hesitated, _could that be true?_ I shook my head, trying to clear away any doubt. "It shouldn't matter what she looks like, she's still my friend."

Valkyrie sighed, "I see you're not going to be convinced, but please just… don't let your guard down."

"Only if you promise to be nice."

"Fine."

I knew Valkyrie was still wary of Rosette, but at least now she would make an effort to cooperate.

Valkyrie picked up the echo stone and we went downstairs to see Rosette being questioned by Skulduggery.

"I told you, everything was done anonymously!" she exclaimed.

"And that wasn't suspicious to you? Then again," he thought aloud "Everyone's got something to hide. If I was hiring an assassin then I wouldn't want people to know I was, not even the assassin."

"Of course it was suspicious, that's why I looked into the matter myself."

"So you realised Sam was a teleporter, but there was still no reason to hurt her, there is no Isthmus Anchor."

"You don't know that there isn't one."

Skulduggery pondered this for a moment, and then stopped abruptly.

"You've thought of something haven't you?" Valkyrie said

"When I was pulled through the portal… my skull became the isthmus anchor."

"Right. What's your point?" Valkyrie asked.

"Batu came through with me, and his body is still there."

"Yes but- you don't think he has something connected to _him _do you?"

"It's unlikely, but it's the only lead we have, we should probably look into it."

"We've already researched everything on Batu when we were trying to find him, and the information was scarce."

"But now we know his actual name," Skulduggery pointed out.

"So should we look into this? Or continue searching for Meloncholia?" Valkyrie questioned

"Who says we can't do both? I am an amazing detective after all."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "Is it safe to check the Sanctuary records?"

"We'll have to, despite the mole working there, but that just means we'll have to check the hard copies."

Valkyrie groaned, "But they're all dusty."

"Too bad."

"Hey Sam!" she called out "Wanna come read some magic documents? It's really fun and interesting and uh… dust-free."

"Your overuse of adjectives gives me the impression that it's none of those things." I replied.

"It'll be faster with two people looking, and they won't be allowed access. So we'll go." Skulduggery said, "And you two stay here."

"We're going to leave Sam alone with the person hired to kill her?"

"I'll be here." Gordon reassured her.

"No offense, but you're a projection."

Gordon looked offended. While he defended his existence, I went over and sat next to Rosette on the couch.

"Are you ok?" I asked, she seemed a little off.

"I told you it would be weird. These guys don't trust me."

"Skulduggery seems to trust you."

"Not very much."

"Give it time, once they realise you're not going to kill anyone then I'm sure they'll warm up to you."

"Not if they discover my past." She muttered under her breath, just audibly enough for me to hear.

I looked at her. "About the fight you guys were in? It was just a misunderstanding." I whispered.

"It still doesn't look good for me."

"I have something that will cheer you up."

"Hm?"

I indicated at the stone Valkyrie had set down on the table and the man sulking beside it.

"Oh yeah, I was going to ask who… or what that was." she asked.

"That's THE Gordon Edgley. Kinda, it's his consciousness in an echo stone."

She looked shocked. "Seriously? I _love_ him!"

"Wanna go say hi?"

"Of course I do!"

She jumped up out of her seat and ran over to Gordon, eagerly questioning him and complimenting his books. It seemed to cheer him up after Valkyrie's comment. I felt relieved, she was acting more like the Elishia I knew, she couldn't be an imposter, there was just no way.

Valkyrie sighed, "Fine. If you think it's ok then we'll leave them, but Sam," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper, "Remember your promise."

"I will. Don't worry, everything will be fine."

"Ok" Skulduggery said, "Let's go read several boring documents in the unlikely chance of finding something that may not exist."

"Oh joy."


	30. Putting the Pieces Together

Eliza smiled as she gazed upon the dead man at her feet, she stepped forward and snatched the ring from his hand, careful not to get any blood on her designer blouse. She twirled the piece of jewellery between her fingers. Now she had all the pieces, and all that was left was the person to put them together.

"Miss?"

"Yes, good job Remus. We are one step closer to the return of our Gods."

Remus Crux bowed low and scurried out the door, Eliza dropped her smile as he left. Ever since gazing upon one of the Gods, Remus has been a devoted follower, however, it also drove him insane and Eliza knew he was close to snapping completely. China's bullet to his chest didn't help his condition either, but it was useful that he was presumed dead, it kept him off the radar and out of trouble.

"What do you think Syrrian?"

Syrrian Camorra looked over the body on the floor, "Well at least he got the right man." He said, then examined the ring in her hand closely before nodding his head in approval, "Yes. This is definitely it."

"Excellent. Then we will begin our plans immediately before anyone gets word that we have it."

"Of course."

"Has there been any word at the Sanctuary of our actions?"

"None so far, Pleasant and Cain seem to be tracking Meloncholia as we planned, but they have been keeping to themselves, so even I, with my position in the Sanctuary don't know what they are really up to, they have a habit of doing their own thing."

"Keep an eye on them, if they are on to us, then it won't be long before they are forced to go to the Sanctuary for information, or for permission to investigate, though I don't doubt them to do as they please, with or without permission."

"Yes. I should probably get back, it is dangerous for me to be here."

Eliza laughed, "That's what you said about me meeting you in the Sanctuary, but nothing happened, and we got what we wanted."

"I know it was necessary for you to be at the Sanctuary for that, but this is different, I came to confirm the legitimacy of the ring, now I should go. If you need to reach me, use my private cell, it can't be traced."

"You worry too much. But I agree, we will not meet in person again unless it is of the utmost importance. You may go now."

He left without another word, stepping carefully around the body.

"Prave." Eliza called

"Yes?" he said as he entered the room, "What is it? I have my own work to do you know. You can't just summon me like a trained dog."

"And yet you come just like one."

He glared at her, then seemed to give up. "What is it?" he sighed,

"Clear this mess away." She ordered, indicating to the body at her feet. "It seems Remus went a little overboard."

Prave turned his nose up at the bloody corpse but did as he was told, his fear of Eliza outweighing his disgust.

Prave dragged the body away, muttering under his breath and then returned with a scrubbing brush and began cleaning the blood stains. "I don't see why he brought the whole body, we only wanted the ring."

Eliza ignored his comments and left him to clear away the mess. It didn't matter now, nothing mattered any more, she had the ring. The ring owned by Patrick Hanratty, the man known as Batu, and worn by him every day except on the day of the battle on Aranmore farm, when the Church almost succeeded in bringing back the Faceless Ones, and they would have, had it not been for Pleasant and Cain. That would not happen again, she would make sure of it.

In order to keep them out of the picture she had found a useless necromancer and given him the resources he needed to recapture Meloncholia, she should be enough of a distraction, but she knew not to underestimate the Skeleton Detective, so she planted moles in the Sanctuary and had several other tricks up her sleeves if she needed them.

Eliza slipped the ring onto her delicate finger and admired it. This ring was moulded to his hand, and though Batu had no magic of his own, his ring was interlaced with it, it was as much a part of him as his own head. She had the isthmus anchor, the symbols were set, and Pleasant and Cain were occupied. Now all that's left is Sam Caprice.


	31. Showdown

"Nothing." Valkyrie groaned as she slumped into a chair in the living room. "Absolutely nothing."

"He was a mortal, so it's to be expected." Skulduggery said.

She glared at him. "But with a magical family, you would have thought there would be more on him."

"It is a little suspicious."

"What's suspicious?" I asked.

"There was nothing on Patrick Hanratty. Well except the information on him that we already knew, but that was only because _we_ submitted it. There's nothing from his past."

"Why is that suspicious? Should there be more information on him?"

"Well… I guess not, just the whole teleporters thing, and the stuff from Aranmore Farm."

"Actually," Skulduggery said. "It's suspicious because that's all there was."

"What do you mean?"

"We know that he was Batu, the one who killed the teleporter, Trope Kessel fifty years ago. Then he killed the five remaining teleporters excluding Fletcher."

Valkyrie suddenly grasped what he was saying. "So there _should_ be a full background check on him in the records?"

"Yes, and the fact that it wasn't there while the information from Aranmore farm was is what I find suspicious. If someone wanted information on him, then why not take all of it? I think they left some behind to throw us off."

"So someone took information that we need, but left some behind so that we would think it didn't exist?"

"Precisely, and I'll bet my skull that it was Eliza."

"Didn't you already bet your skull once?"

"No, I _won_ my skull in a poker game, there's a difference."

"You should probably stop gambling with your body parts."

"So if this information has been taken." I interrupted, "Then how do we get it?"

"We'll have to talk to people who knew Batu personally, if Eliza hasn't got to them first."

"Do you know who these people are?" I asked

"That's the next item on the list, we also have to keep searching for Meloncholia, both to keep her from killing anyone else and also to make sure Eliza thinks we have no clue what she is up to."

"Who's Meloncholia?"

"The supposed Death Bringer, well she used to be, after I was, but she isn't now, and neither am I." Valkyrie explained, or tried to.

"And a Death Bringer is..?"

"A necromancer who is said to have the power to kill half the world so that the other half will live forever." Rosette answered as she entered the room, a drink in hand. "She was one of my targets, but you got to her before I did." She said, to answer the confused looks.

"You were hired to go after Meloncholia?" Skulduggery asked.

"Yup." She said, then casually sipped at her drink. "In fact I was in the tunnels under this house on the night of the Requiem Ball."

"You what?" Valkyrie exclaimed "How?"

"I entered the house with the waiters, then while they were trying to rob everybody I snuck away in the confusion to the caves."

"Ah yes, I noticed there was one less waiter." Skulduggery mused.

"And you didn't say anything?!"

He shrugged.

"Anyway, I tracked Meloncholia for a while, but then I ran into a few monsters, and a horde of zombies who were running back and forth screaming their heads off. It's a weird place down there, anyway there was some commotion and I ended up running into Lord Vile, he is not a friendly guy. Well, long story short, I ended up knocked out at the bottom of a cavern and by the time I got out, Meloncholia was being taken away by Sanctuary Officials.

"I knew I couldn't trust you." Valkyrie said, her eyes narrowing.

"We were on the same side, how does that make you not trust me?"

"You snuck into my house."

"Because I knew there was a murderous girl with the power to kill everyone in your basement."

Valkyrie was standing now. "Well, there was no need for that. We handled it."

"Really? I heard you let Lord Vile make an appearance and they tore up half the city."

"Thanks to me and Skulduggery, everyone left the building alive while you were passed out in a ditch."

I stared at them, this was getting bad…

"So you made her give their lives back and then what? Hid and watched while Lord Vile dealt with the problem?"

"At least _I_ was of some use." Valkyrie retorted, they were nearly shouting now.

"Well I'm sorry that I was inconvenienced by your precious pets you keep under your house!"

"Well if you were any _real_ kind of assassin, they wouldn't have been a problem!"

"And you know all about problems."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Getting your ex to help you kill your vampire boyfriend? That's low."

Valkyrie stared at her. Mouth agape, then punched her square in the jaw.

Rosette's drink flew out of her hand as she returned the blow to Valkyrie's stomach. Suddenly, it was an all out brawl.

"Skulduggery!" I screamed, "We have to stop them!"

"I would, but my hat is finally sitting on the perfect angle and I don't want to ruin it."

I stared at him. "Your hat? Who cares about your hat? They're attacking each other!"

"I care about my hat."

"You... We should..."

"Relax, they probably needed this with all the tension between them, we'll stop it before it gets out of control."

Valkyrie kicked and Rosette went flying across the room, crashing into a table. She pushed off from her hands and flipped up onto her feet, then ran straight at Valkyrie, her fist growing larger and swung at her face. Valkyrie ducked but didn't see her other fist coming in lower which smacking her in the nose.

She cursed and grabbed Rosette around the waist then twisted her hip and flung her into the ground, Rosette jumped up again and dived on her. Valkyrie snapped her wrist and sent a blast of air pushing her back.

The gust caught Skulduggery's hat and blew it into the next room. I looked at him.

"Ok." He said quietly, "we can probably stop them now." Then went to retrieve his hat.

I grabbed Rosette and teleported her upstairs, then returned to the lounge, as Skulduggery returned, replacing his hat on his head in the exact same position.

He looked in the mirror hanging on the wall. "It's not the same." He sighed.

Rosette came storming down the stairs, "What was that?!" she exclaimed.

"You two need to calm down and apologize."

"No way."

"Hell no."

"Do it or I'll leave you in the Sahara to work things out."

They glared at each other.

"Fine." Valkyrie muttered. "Sorry for punching you in your stupid face."

"Sorry for punching you back… even though you started it."

"Excuse me but-"

"Ok, we're all sorry and now we're going to drop it!" I yelled, before they could start arguing again.

"Listen you two, you're going to have to get along, at least for the mean time." Skulduggery said.

I breathed a sigh of relief, at least _someone_ was thinking straight.

"You can go kill each other after we've closed this case, and please try to leave my hat out of this." He continued

_Well, kinda._


	32. Dreams of Death

"How are you feeling?" Dragonclaw spoke gently, careful not to upset the young girl in front of him.

Melancholia lifted her head, "Stronger, but not yet at my full potential."

"Do you need more energy? We can go out tonight and find some people..."

"No, we don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves."

"Of course, yes, you're right, Pleasant and Cain must be on our trail."

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Tomorrow, we will move to the next town over, and then I can build up enough strength to take on Pleasant and Cain myself."

"Are you sure you're ready?"

She ignored him.

"Yes. Ok, I'll go now." He said as he quietly left the room and shut the door.

Melancholia couldn't help but smile a little. She may not have the constant recharge of power after Lord Vile cut through her markings, but people were still afraid of her, and sometimes fear was power enough.

She ran a hand over the scarred markings on her body; each one was either severed or had been counteracted by Doctor Nye. But Melancholia had had a taste of the magnificent power that she had once possessed, and she knew she was capable of it again, the power given to her by the symbols only allowed her the strength to do what she did, but if she found a _new _way to make herself stronger then there would be no stopping her, it wasn't about technique or knowledge, it was about _power_, and that was something Melancholia now craved. She _would_ be the Death Bringer again. But she wouldn't follow the silly rules of the necromancers, death was glorious and she would share it with the whole world.

She walked over and sat on her bed. It felt soft, and warm. The feeling was odd to her, back when she was Death Bringer, she felt nothing, nothing but the intense ice coldness that came with death, filling her body and making her feel electric. She looked down at the bracelet on her wrist, she much preferred having all that power inside her body rather than in this pathetic piece of jewellery, but until she could, it would have to do.

As for Valkyrie, she couldn't remember much from the night of the Requiem Ball, but before she had blacked out she did remember Valkyrie asking to kill her, and she tried but Valkyrie changed and became… powerful. Dragonclaw had told her that she and Vile had torn up the streets and demolished half a town, but she had no memory of that, only her fighting Vile in the caves. She frowned, was it Valkyrie who had done that? But how did she become so powerful? And Skulduggery, _he_ was Lord Vile, but no one knew that, except obviously her and Valkyrie.

She lay down on the bed, there was no point exposing Pleasant's secret just yet, let them worry about what she would do first, and she could hold this over them for a while. As for Valkyrie's interesting new powers, well she would have to make sure she was a lot stronger before taking them on, she wouldn't underestimate them again. She closed her eyes and rolled over before falling asleep to thoughts of draining the whole world of its life and the immense power she would feel, oh yes, she _would _have that power again.


	33. Taken

I slumped onto the couch next to Rosette who was watching tv. Skulduggery and Valkyrie had a lead as to Melancholia's whereabouts and had gone to do their detective thing. Valkyrie and Rosette weren't speaking to each other since the fight, and I'm pretty sure Valkyrie was relieved to get out of the house and away from her, but she was also wary of leaving me alone with her and took a lot of convincing on my part to leave.

"Elishia?"

"Hm?"

"Can you _please_ try to make things right with Valkyrie? I mean, we're kinda stuck together until this whole thing is sorted so…"

"She started it."

"You didn't have to bring up that thing about her ex boyfriend, how did you know that anyway?"

"I have my sources."

"Right." I was interrupted by a txt on my phone, it was from Fletcher. "Oh crap, I completely forgot." I groaned.

"Huh?"

"Hold up." I said and sent a reply telling him to come to Valkyrie's place so I could explain what was happening.

"After everything that's been happening, I kinda feel bad for not telling him."

"What? Telling who?"

"You'll meet him in a sec." I looked around, "Weird, I'd have thought he'd be here by now."

"Wait… do you mean…" she was cut short by Fletcher's sudden appearance in the centre of the lounge, he looked angry.

"Well speak of the devil." She muttered quietly under her breath

"You could have said to meet at her _Uncle's _house!" he exclaimed, "I went to her house and her family walked in and saw me standing there!"

"I thought this was her house?" I asked, puzzled

"Yeah, but she has her family's house as well." He exclaimed

"Sorry." I laughed, "How did you get out of there?"

"Yeah, it's just lucky they didn't actually see me teleport, and it was lucky that her reflection was there to- who's this?" he said indicating to Elishia.

"Wow, a smart one aren't you." She replied sarcastically. "I'm Rosette. And you must be Fletcher, we were just talking about you."

"You were?" he said with a smirk

"We were?" I echoed

"Yeah, you know… that comment I made that got Valkyrie so upset…" she hinted

"What? …oh. Wait a minute…" I looked at Fletcher, "You two used to date?"

"What? No! I've never met this girl in my life!"

"Not Rosette, I meant Valkyrie."

"Oh, well yeah."

"So it was you who…" I looked at Rosette who simply nodded, "Seriously? A vampire?"

"Yup."

"So they actually exist."

"Yeah."

"Ok that's creepy, both in a terrifying way and in a Twilight-could-actually-exist kinda way."

"Can someone fill me in here?" Fletcher asked.

"Oh, right, yeah there was an assassin after me who turned out to actually be my best friend and now we have to hide out here because the person who hired her will still want me dead since she hasn't returned and we think they're trying to make me open some sort of dimension to the Faceless Ones." I explained "Oh, and Rosette and Valkyrie got in a cat fight."

"We did not." She protested

"Well you did fight."

"Until you interrupted." She mumbled under her breath.

"Ok… so now you're staying here?" he asked

"Yeah." I sighed, "Skulduggery thinks I keep running into trouble."

"What a hypocrite."

"I'll say."

We were interrupted by a knock at the door. We all stood still.

"Who would that be?" I whispered, "Valkyrie or Skulduggery wouldn't knock and no one knows we're here."

"A door-to-door salesman?" Fletcher suggested

Rosette rolled her eyes. "This far out of town?

"Maybe it's someone looking for Valkyrie or Skulduggery then?"

"Wouldn't they call them then? And besides, whoever it is should have noticed that the car was gone."

There was another knock.

"Should we answer it?" I asked

"No one knows we're here. It's best to keep it that way." Rosette whispered, "Just stay quiet until they leave."

"Or, you transform into Valkyrie and answer the door, we've decided they aren't looking for her, so maybe they'll leave if they discover she's here."

"That's… actually a good idea. OK." She said, and her hair and face changed until she resembled Valkyrie to the last detail.

"Wow." Fletcher said.

Rosette got up and went to the door as the knocks got louder.

We heard her answer it and there was a brief conversation, then the door closed and she returned.

"What happened?" I asked

"He said he was lost and needed directions."

"That was it?" I sighed, "I guess we're just paranoid then."

"No, it was an obvious excuse, we were right, he thought Valkyrie and Skulduggery were gone, but when he saw Valkyrie he quickly made up a reason to leave."

"But he knocked… if her thought no one was home wouldn't he have broken in or something?" Fletcher asked

"He thought Valkyrie and Skulduggery were gone, but he knew someone else was here."

Suddenly the window smashed as a large man in a dark cloak burst through it into the room.

Rosette jumped into action while Fletcher and I stumbled backwards, she was obviously used to this sort of thing.

"That was a clever trick girlie." The man said from under his hood, "but not clever enough."

I ducked down behind the couch and pulled Fletcher down with me.

"What about Rosette?" he asked

"I think she can hold her own, at least for a while." I replied, pulling out my phone. "I'm going to ring Skulduggery, you should get out of here."

"What does that guy want?"

"Well I _think_ he might be after me, but if realises you're here too, then he has his choice of two teleporters." I explained

"If he's after teleporters, then you should leave too."

I peeked over the couch as a loud crash sounded and I saw the man go flying across the room.

"I can't just leave Rosette, I'll wait for a chance and then take her with me."

"Ok, just… be careful."

"I will now go." I urged, then suddenly I felt a strong hand wrap around my arm and I was in Australia.

"Fletcher did you-"

He looked horrified, and I soon realised why, the man back fighting Rosette didn't come alone, and it seems his partner grabbed us just before Fletcher teleported, bringing himself and me along.

"You can't teleport away. Not while I've got ya". He said to me, _he must have thought I did this, he hasn't realised it was Fletcher._

The man was small, but surprisingly strong. He had my arm in a vice-like grip and from the grimace on Fletchers face I assumed he was receiving the same treatment, Fletcher swung his arm around and tried to punch him but was forced to the ground and held under his knee as the man tied his hands behind his back, then tying mine as well.

"Now take us back." He ordered

"Why should I?" I retorted, trying to keep my voice from shaking so I wouldn't sound as scared as I actually was.

"Do it now or your friend here dies." He said, pressing his knee down on the back of Fletchers neck.

"Ok just… let him go." I pleaded, _if Fletcher could get away, then he can get Skulduggery and Valkyrie and maybe…_

"No, let her go and _I'll _take you back." Fletcher demanded from the floor

If I wasn't being restrained by this guy, my hand would've met my forehead faster than it took Fletcher to realise his stupid mistake.

"Wait a minute aren't you…" the man said peering down at Fletchers face, "Yup, you're that teleporter boy aint cha? The one with the funny hair, looks like I got lucky."

"Fletcher you idiot." I mumbled

"The last two teleporters on earth, and I got both of 'em." He said. "Lucky me."

"Now one of you's is gonna take us back to Ireland, alright?" he said, letting Fletcher up off the ground.

"No." I said

"I only need one of ya, so I don't mind slittin' some throats."

Suddenly we were back in Ireland.

"Fletcher!" I growled

"Sorry"

"That's better. Now to make sure you two don't go runnin' off."

There was a loud clump as he hit Fletcher on the back of the head, sending him to the ground where he lay unconscious.

"Flet-" but before I could even finish, I felt him hit me as well and everything went black.


	34. Eliza Scorn

I couldn't believe it, I had been kidnapped _again._ This was just embarrassing now, I'm a teleporter now, this shouldn't be happening so easily. Apparently kidnappers have no other means of blindfolding someone because my head was covered with a dark sack. _At least this one doesn't stink. _I tried to move but my hands were cuffed behind my back, and after a failed attempt at teleporting I realised that my magic was bound.

"Brilliant." I muttered

"Huh? Whozat?" came a groggy voice from nearby

"Fletcher?" I whispered

"Sam? That you? My powers are bound, can you teleport us outta here?"

"Don't think so, I'm bound too."

"Well that sucks, I'm guessing you have a sack too?"

"Yup."

We heard muffled voices talking and fell silent. I could barely make out what they were saying.

"I got ya two of 'em, I reckon you should double my fee."

"I didn't ask for two of them."

"But two's better than one right? Fine then, you pick the one you want and I'll just get rid of the other."

I swallowed a lump in my throat, _I really hope that 'get rid of' means 'let go without harming'_

"No, might as well take both." Came the voice with a sigh, "I'll pay you for your trouble of course."

"So long as I get paid."

The voices grew louder and suddenly the sack was yanked off my head. Startled by the sudden brightness, I blinked and squinted upwards as my vision cleared.

"Hello Sam. I've been looking for you." Said a man I had never seen before, "Oh and Fletcher, nice to see you."

"And you would be?" Fletcher asked

"Syrrian Camorra, we've never met but I've heard about you, last of the teleporters, or at least until our dear little Sam came along."

"And how do you know me?" I asked

"We have our ways."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you've made quiet an entrance."

"Ok stop with the stupid riddles and give me a straight answer."

"The skeleton detective must have chosen not to tell you, or perhaps he doesn't know yet? See, we had a psychic reveal to us that you would be the lucky lady to open the portal, of course the future can change, so it's just luck that we have Mr Wrenn with us as well." He said with a smile, ignoring my shocked gasp.

"I would never do that, it would mean the end of the world, and I know you need an Isthmus Anchor to open it anyway."

"Don't worry, we have everything covered."

"You… what? You have an anchor?" I asked, aghast, _this could actually happen, and if a psychic saw it, then it will._

"Don't you worry about all that just yet, now why don't I introduce you to our host?" Syrrian said, then pulled us both out of the back of the truck where we were still lying, he was surprisingly strong, as most people seem to be in this world. _From now on, I'll only be surprised if someone is surprisingly weak…_

We were ushered inside a small church-like building where I saw a beautiful woman standing at the other end of the room. She smiled brightly.

"Welcome, I've been waiting for you Sam, and Fletcher! How nice to see you." She said, then looked at Syrrian.

"Yes, it seems they were together so they were both brought." He explained

"Oh well, the more the merrier." She said

"You're Eliza." I said, finally finding me voice.

"My reputation precedes me, so now the introductions are done, I think we should get straight to things, before we get… interrupted."

I gulped back fear, _they said I would open the portal, but why would I? What could they possibly do to make me do it?_

"I won't open the portal." I said defiantly,

"Oh yes you will." She replied with a smile "I'm sure of it."

"I know what will happen when it opens, and I'd rather die first."

"Don't worry, you will die as well, but _after_ you've done your job." She said, her voice growing cold.

"Was that a threat to make me do what you want? Because it wasn't a very good one."

"No, it was another thing our psychic saw, you open the portal and then you die."


	35. The Death Bringer

"I'm afraid I have bad news my lady." Dragonclaw said nervously

Meloncholia lifted her head and stared at her pathetic servant. "What news?"

"It seems that the followers of the Faceless Ones are planning to open the portal."

She scowled, "That can't happen."

"What do you want to do?"

"We will stop them."

"Mistress are you sure you're strong enough?"

Shadows curled around her in answer to his question and he backed away. "If they succeed and the Faceless Ones return, then they will kill everyone and the passage will never come to pass." She growled, "We have no time to lose, where are they?"

"They must be where the portal opened last time." Dragonclaw answered as she strode past him out of the room.

She could not allow those false gods to destroy her world, the only one doing that would be her.

* * *

><p>Valkyrie crept quietly along the side of the building, keeping to the shadows. She didn't like being sneaky, she would much rather burst straight in there and apprehend Meloncholia, and maybe even slap her around a little bit. Unfortunately, according to Skulduggery, she may still have the power she once had. Nye had stopped her from being able to recharge herself, but could do nothing with the power she had already accumulated, and by the number of deaths she had caused, it seems she has found a way to recharge herself. So all that meant stealth was necessary.<p>

She found an open window and crawled through silently, looking around as she dropped down to the floor. She went to the door and pressed an ear to it, trying to pick up the muffled voices on the other side that were growing louder. Valkyrie lay down and peered under the crack as two pairs of feet walked past.

"Go, get a car." A familiar voice ordered

"Yes mistress" a second voice answered

She held her breath as Meloncholia and Dragonclaw walked past, then opened the door silently and followed them down the hallway. Just before they reached the exit, Skulduggery stepped out in front of them.

Meloncholia sighed, making him cock his head.

"I'll admit, that wasn't the reaction I was hoping for." He said

This was bad, Meloncholia was so calm. Could this mean she still had the power of the death bringer

"Out of my way skeleton." She demanded

"But that would defeat the purpose of me getting in your way."

Dragonclaw turned to go the other way but paused when he saw Valkyrie already blocking his path.

"You're under arrest." She said "for several murders, breaking into the sanctuary and for having that stupid beard."

Dragonclaw scowled but remained still.

"You too Meloncholia, except for the beard bit."

"The longer we stay here, the worst things get." Meloncholia muttered impatiently, "deal to them." She said to Dragonclaw, and with a small motion of her hand, a wave of shadows slammed into Skulduggery and knocked him into the wall as she stepped past him for the door.

He quickly jumped into action, and fired his gun, but the bullets were absorbed by the darkness that coiled around her feet.

"Why do I even bother." He muttered, "just a waste of bullets."

He clicked his fingers and sent twin streams of fire at her which she deflected and retaliated with her shadows.

Valkyrie ran forward but was pushed back by Dragonclaw. She clicked her fingers and threw a fireball at him, hitting him in the chest. He screeched and patted the flames out, then sent a fist of shadows slamming into her stomach, taking her off her feet. As she fell, Valkyrie spun in the air, landing on her feet and sending her own shadows into his shins, making him flip over onto his side. Taking the opportunity, Valkyrie ran past him but a tendril of darkness wrapped around her ankle and she was pulled back, she turned and moved with the tendril until she reached Dragonclaw and jumped up, kicking him in the face.

Meanwhile, Meloncholia had shadows pinning Skulduggery against the wall. He pushed at the air and she stumbled back, losing her hold on him. He jumped down and sent a stronger blast this time, pushing her back.

Meloncholia scowled at him and shadows began to collect around her body.

"No!" Valkyrie yelled as she ran over, recognising what was happening, but it was too late. The shadows dispersed and Meloncholia was gone.

"Damn it." She muttered. "If she is still as strong as she was, then she could be miles from here."

"No." Skulduggery answered, "Her power is limited, she can't recharge like she used to, I don't think she would waste what she has."

"So she's nearby, but what about him?" she asked, jerking a thumb over her shoulder at Dragonclaw.

"Leave him. He's not important right now."

"What?"

"Come on, we can't lose her."

Dragonclaw jumped up and soon he had also disappeared.

"And why did we let him go?"

"He'll take us to her, we know that he can't go far, his necromancer ability isn't nearly strong enough. He must have reappeared outside, let's go."

They ran outside just as a car roared past with Dragonclaw at the wheel.

They ran to the Bentley and jumped in, the engine roared to life and they followed them through the flow of traffic with ease.

Valkyrie spotted a flash of blonde hair from the passenger seat in Dragonclaw's car.

"He has Meloncholia."

"But now, where is he taking her?"


	36. The Portal

I stepped out of the car and looked around the field, I had been here before. This was the same place where I had meet China Sorrows.

"Come on now, this way." Eliza said with a smile

They were treating me kindly, probably hoping that I would cooperate, I went along with it, hoping they would remove these damn cuffs.

We walked out onto the field to a patch of grass that had strange symbols carved into the ground.

Eliza laughed quietly. "Oh China." She murmured to herself, "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

She motioned with her hand and Syrrian began altering some of the marking and removing others all together.

I quietly stepped back to where Fletcher was standing while Eliza watched over Syrrians work.

"Please tell me you have a plan to get the hell out of here." I whispered

"I'm not much of a plan guy." He answered

"What a shocker." I muttered

"Listen, I've opened the portal before, and it hurt. A lot. So try not to resist it and it will be a lot less painful."

"Great, so I won't suffer while I bring through the things that will make me suffer and die."

"What I meant was, if you just go with it instead of resisting it, you might be able to control it and close the portal before anything gets through. It's worth a shot."

"Hopefully it won't come to that. They'll need to take these cuffs off me to get the portal open, when they do, I'll hit them with... whatever, I don't think they know I'm an elemental so they won't be expecting it."

"Ok, that sounds like a plan. That's definitely a plan as far as plans go."

"Shut up. Do you have anything better?"

"Uh… don't die?"

"Wow. I feel so assured now, as long as we follow _that_ masterpiece."

He smiled reassuringly. "Hey, we'll be ok. I bet your friend told Val and Skulduggery and they are already on their way here."

Syrrian looked over at us and we instantly fell silent. He shoved Fletcher away and pulled me over to the markings on the ground, pushing me down onto my knees in the centre of the symbols he had just finished correcting. Then Eliza handed him a ring and he slipped it onto my finger.

"What's this?" I asked

"Just a little something to help with the process." Eliza explained

_Does that mean it will make opening the portal easier? Or just less painful for me? No, I don't think they care about what I go through. _

Syrrian then removed the cuffs from my wrist, keeping a tight hold on my arm to make sure I wouldn't teleport away.

As soon as they were removed I felt magic flow back into my body, I immediately sent that magic to my hand, snapping my fingers to summon a spark, but instead of a flame, the ring on my hand began to glow with an intense heat.

Syrrian twisted my arm behind my back painfully and I fell to my knees, then he knocked me forward and held my other hand down on the ground, pressing down with his knee.

The ring glowed brighter as it came closer to the symbol, and the heat was becoming unbearable. Fletchers eyes grew wide as he realised what was happening. The heat intensified in my hand and crawled up my arm, soon my entire body burned fiercely. I cried out as the scolding heat was soon followed by agonising pain, and blinking back tears, I saw a small yellow circle shining above me.

I soon realised what was happening, and it was too late to stop it.

_The ring is the anchor. And the portal is opening._


	37. The Faceless One

Out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed red and black smoke swirling around and up into the air like a fierce tornado. The circle above me grew wider as the pain intensified; I bit my lip against the agony and tasted blood in my mouth. I tried to remember Fletcher's advice, but nothing came to mind. I couldn't think of anything besides the excruciating torture I was going through. _He said it would be painful._ That's right. He did, and he had also said to try to control it. _Don't fight it, control it._

I noticed that my hand was clenched tight, my nails digging into my palm and a small bead of blood trickling down to my wrist. I stared at the droplet, focusing on nothing but that, my hand slackened slightly. I let the power flow through my hand and into the ring, the pain lessened greatly, but the shining portal above me also grew wider. I tried to redirect it, trying my hardest to close the portal that would ultimately result in the world's demise.

I felt sweat drip down my forehead from the effort, but my attempts were useless, it seemed there was no way to close the portal while I was still in contact with the anchor. The only thing to do would be to get the ring off.

Easier said than done.

With Syrrian holding my other arm behind my back to stop me from teleporting away, I was left with one hand that was currently burning in agony. I wriggled my fingers, pushing the ring off millimetre by millimetre, it slowly slid up my finger. All while the portal was growing bigger and bigger.

Suddenly, my ears popped and my head filled with white noise, there was a scream coming from somewhere. I barely saw it, but even the smallest glimpse was enough. It was everything and nothing, the mere thought of it pounded in my head as something incomprehensible.

Blood pounded in my ears as I realised that my arm was free, I wrenched the ring from my finger and it flew several metres away from me. The portal above me began to close rapidly receding until it was only a small pinprick of light and then vanished entirely.

I blinked my eyes, trying to focus when someone dived into me, pushing me to the side, I felt a hand press over my eyes as I was dragged away. I managed to elbow my captor in the ribs, then wriggle out of their grip.

"Stop it you idiot, I'm trying to save your life."

"Rosette?"

"Did you see it?"

"See what?"

"One came through, thank god it was only one, but we need to get rid of it as soon as possible, where's the anchor?"

"Why?"

"We'll need you to open the portal again so we can push it back through, there's no way to kill one of those things so it's all we've got."

"Right." I said, I shook my head to clear it. "It's over… " I said, scanning the area. "There." I pointed at the area where it landed.

We both watched as Syrrian walked over to where I was pointing, his back to us. My face fell as he stooped down and picked up the ring. His fist clenched around it and he dropped his hand, dust fell from his open palm.

Then he turned to us and I felt Rosette grab my arm, pulling us both backwards, her panic was clear and I knew why. His face was completely blank.


	38. Darquesse

Valkyrie burst from the treeline, she sprinted toward the column of red and black smoke that swirled up into the air, looking to her left she saw Skulduggery running parallel alongside her. There was a pulse in the air and she was hit by a strong shockwave that blasted her back.

The pressure popped in her ears and she squeezed her eyes shut as a throbbing in her head pounded against her temples. The pain subsided and she raised her head, that was when she saw it. The Faceless One. This being of fractured angles and broken reason burned into her mind, searing away her consciousness. But her mind was protected, not only by the seal on her heart placed there by Doctor Nye, but also by her own true name.

Darquesse stood up and laughed as she watched this so called _God _turn toward the girl who had released it. That girl would be dead in seconds. But before the Faceless One could claim her life, another girl, Rosette, dived into her and dragged her away. The Faceless One ignored the girls and moved instead to the man.

Syrrian Camorra screamed as the creature rushed at him. His short dark hair began to fall out, piece by piece as his face dripped away. The ears and nose sank into the skin. His eyes melted out of their sockets and his lips fused together. The Faceless One had taken its vessel.

Darquesse watched, interested as the Faceless One walked over and picked up something small, something shining, and turned it to dust.

_The Anchor, Batu's ring. This God doesn't want to go back, and obviously doesn't care about letting the others through._

"Valkyrie?" Came a worried voice.

She turned to see the skeleton watching her, his head slightly cocked.

"Valkyrie isn't here right now."

"Yes she is, she's in there. Can I talk to her please?"

"What about Lord Vile? Is he in there?" she replied, indicating toward his ribcage. "Can I talk to him? He was fun."

"We both know that's not going to happen."

Darquesse gazed off as the Faceless One that had once been Syrrian Camorra walked across the field where Sanctuary officials were arriving on the scene. It killed the first few with a wave of its hand, then stalked after the others that ran.

She flew up into the air, ignoring the skeleton. She could toy with him later. But right now, she didn't want him getting in her head, giving Valkyrie the strength to take over. She had an opportunity that she just couldn't miss. The opportunity to test her strength against that of a God.


	39. The Battle has Begun

"That was the Faceless One?" I asked, shocked by the horror of the smooth skin where Syrrians face once was.

"Yes. And now we're pretty much screwed." Rosette answered

"What?"

"There is only one way to kill a God, and that is with the Sceptre of the Ancients which was destroyed thanks to those friends of yours."

"So what do we do?"

"Well another way to get rid of it is to get it back through the portal and send it back, but the anchor was destroyed so…"

My shoulders sagged, "Yup. We're screwed."

"It may look human… kind of, but remember, it is a God and it will kill you with barely a glance, so stay alert."

"Oh my god Fletcher! He's still out there and he can't teleport!"

"What did I just say?"

"Rosette, he'll die."

"So might you."

"I'll teleport there and back. It'll take half a second."

"That's all it takes. Stay here and let's work out a plan."

"Ok fine." I said, then teleported, and spotted Fletcher's unconscious body lying in the grass. I grabbed his arm and teleported back to where Rosette was waiting.

"You idiot." She growled

"He's not moving."

She sighed and stepped over, then lifted his wrist and checked his pulse. "He's still alive, just unconscious. Must have been knocked out by the blast when the Faceless One came through."

"How do we get the cuffs off him? They're binding his magic."

"Well he can't use it can he?"

"Rosette..."

"Right right, ok. They look like Sanctuary cuffs, the lock can't be picked, but I think they can be broken with enough force."

"So break them."

"That force would probably break him too."

"Well you're just super helpful, thanks a lot."

"Saved your life didn't I?"

"Ok, whatever." I muttered "but now what? There's a God out there destroying everything and we have no way to stop it."

"I… don't know. Run for our lives?"

"And leave everyone else behind?"

"What else can we do Sam?" Rosette was yelling now "I'm sorry but there's nothing that can save us now. Face it. It's over."

"It's not over till it's over." I said. "I did this, and I'm going to fix it with or without your help." I knelt by Fletcher and grabbed his limp hand, then looked up at Rosette.

She sighed and held out her hand. I smiled and took her hand before teleporting us out of the forest.

We reappeared back at the farmhouse, and the noise from the battle hit us like an explosion. WE quickly ducked for cover and sidled along the wall, keeping out of view. I heard a grunt and saw that Fletcher was awake.

"What the hell is going on?" he yelled over the noise

"Portal's open, Faceless One got out, Anchor destroyed and now we're trying to figure out what the hell to do." I explained all in one breath, then pulled on his arm, dragging him behind me as we headed for the door to the house after Rosette.

"Sorry about the cuffs." I apologized as I pushed him ahead of me through the door and entering behind him.

"Yeah about that, why the hell am I still cuffed? I can't teleport!"

"Well the only way to get them off is with the key…"

"Which is probably either lost or still in the pocket of the guy who is currently possessed by a Faceless One. Do you want to go get it?" Rosette interrupted.

"If we could break the chain, would that unbind his powers?" I asked

"I already explained, we can't break the chain."

"Uh guys..?" Fletcher said quietly

"What makes you such an expert on handcuffs, these might not be Sanctuary official, maybe these guys got them from somewhere else." I said, ignoring him

"Guys…"

"You can try and break it if you want, you might take his hand off though."

"Guys!"

"What?" we both cried in unison, turning around to see Fletcher wrapped up in shadows.

Rosette immediately jumped into a defensive pose, "A necromancer." She muttered, looking around the room.

"Oh very observant." Came a bored drawl from the corner of the room. Meloncholia stepped forward into the light to show herself, not bothering to maintain a defence, not while she had their friend in her grasp.

Rosette jumped forward, her boot flying through the air straight for the necromancers nose. Shadows leapt up and wrapped around her ankle, throwing her off course where she hit the floor and slid to the opposite side of the room.

"If you didn't notice" she said "I have your friend, attack me again, and I'll crush him." She said, then pondered the thought. "Or maybe I'll stab him." She said with a small smile.

"What do you want?" I demanded, "If you haven't noticed, there's a manic God on the loose. I don't think now is the time for this."

"That's Meloncholia St Claire." Rosette explained, "She was the Death Bringer until she went on a killing spree and the Sanctuary locked her up."

"I _am_ the Death Bringer." Meloncholia hissed

"_You're_ Meloncholia?" I said, "Really? _You're_ the reason I was kidnapped?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I do." Came a familiar voice.

I let out a groan as Dragonclaw stepped forward, he glared at me.

"So you gave up the idiot zombies for a girl who plays with shadows? Well at least this one has a brain"

I heard a small gasp as the shadows tightened around Fletchers body.

"Do not mock me." She snarled

"Technically, that was kind of a compliment."

"We're not idiots." I spun around to see Thrasher standing behind me with the chilli bin in his hand that contained Scapegrace's head.

"Well _this_ one is." Came a muffled voice from the bin.

"Who didn't you bring with you?" I asked exasperated, while Rosette stared in confusion at the scene before her.

A loud boom was heard outside that shook the house, the ceiling light swung, throwing the shadows about the room. The only ones that remained still were the dark coils wrapped around Fletchers body, and I noticed several dark wisps leaking out from Meloncholia, they were mainly condensed around the necklace she wore.

"Enough!" Meloncholia shouted, clearly this wasn't going how she planned. "The girl who opened the portal, is she still alive?" she asked

"What do you mean is she still alive?" Rosette demanded

"A powerful Seer predicted that a girl would open the portal, and then die. Is she dead yet?"

"She- no."

"You opened the portal didn't you?" she said to Rosette, who glared at her.

"She didn't do it." I said

Meloncholia turned to me, a frustrated look on her face. "Then it was you?"

There was a small grunt from Fletcher, who was still gasping for breath and struggling against the tight coils that wrapped around him. I could just make out the words he was fighting to het out.

"…me... the portal… me."

Meloncholia looked at him, annoyed.

"Mistress." Dragonclaw spoke up. "The boy, he is Fletcher Wrenn, the teleporter."

"Did you open the portal?" Meloncholia asked.

I saw him glance at me quickly before nodding his head.

The shadows around him loosened and he breathed in gratefully.

"I guess the prophecy was false." She mused, "Listen, I don't want this God here anymore than you do, so you will open the portal again so that it can be pushed through."

"One problem." He said, his voice still coming in short gasps. He raised his hands so she could see the cuffs that bound his powers. "Powerless, sorry."

A spear of darkness streaked across the room and sliced through the chain that linked the cuffs together, Fletcher jumped back with a small yell.

"You almost sliced me in half!"

"But now the chains are cut. You're powers should be returned to you."

I glanced over at Rosette with a smug smile, but faltered when I saw her expression. She was staring straight at Meloncholia, and if looks could kill, I would not want to be in her shoes right now.

"Now you will open the portal." Meloncholia demanded

"One more thing, I need the anchor."

"Well where is it?" she said, becoming more and more frustrated.

"Uh… out there." Fletcher said, pointing out the window to the place where the portal was opened, and where several people were running for their lives, heading in our direction.

We all looked out as the man who was once Syrrian Camorra stalked out of the trees and into view. His face terrifyingly smooth, his clothes torn and stained red with what we all knew was not his blood.

His expressionless face turned in our direction and he raised a hand, almost as if in greeting. But what followed was anything but friendly. A blast was sent out from his direction, we all dived away as the windows shattered, raining glass down onto us. There were several loud snaps as the wooden frame of the house snapped and bent.

Surprisingly it stayed upright, but it wouldn't for long. I fought against every one of my instincts and lifted my head, peering out to see what was happening outside. The Faceless One turned towards me and I could feel its impossible stare burning into me, a thousand voices filled my ears, whispering a dead language. The Faceless One was drawing closer.

"Oh hell." I muttered


	40. The Fight Continues

To everyone still sticking with the story, thanks for that. I'm really sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, I just started University and got kinda distracted. But I just finished my last exam so I promise to upload more!

* * *

><p>"Guys we have to go. NOW." Rosette yelled as the Faceless One drew nearer<p>

"Hold onto each other!" she ordered. "Sam! Get us out of here!"

My head was full of the terrifying noises that came from the growing presence of the dark God. I felt dizzy, and everything blurred.

"Sam!" Rosette yelled.

The whispers grew louder, they had no source. But I could hear them so clearly in my head, blocking out every other thought, not one single location came to mind where I could teleport, I couldn't even remember my own home.

"Stupid girl." Meloncholia scowled, trying to hide her fear with anger

"Fletcher!" Rosette cried, her voice becoming panicked

I shook my head, trying to clear it. When I looked up, Everyone was gone. _Oh hell, I let go._

I saw the Faceless One pause, it had sensed that the others had gone. But I was still here, and it knew.

I clambered over the scattered furniture and broken glass as I ran for the door. My head couldn't think straight to teleport, but at least my legs were still working.

I kicked down the door and sprinted outside, running as fast as I could any direction, as long as it was away from that thing. I jumped over a body, not wanting to know who's and entered the forest and kept running, stumbling over roots and sticks but not daring to stop, and not daring to look back.

It was following me, I knew it. Everyone else was dead, and the others had teleported far from here. It would kill me, then move on to the town, and then the one after that. Killing everyone in its path.

But for some reason, I had the idea in my head, that it would leave all the other places alone, at least until it finished off this area. So if I stayed alive, they did too. It was a stupid idea, and completely illogical, but it gave me the power to ignore the burning in my legs and keep going.

I stepped into a hole and tripped, crashing down to the earth and tumbling along the ground. I lay there for a moment, listening. The whispers had ceased, the forest was quiet, deathly quiet. There was no bird song, or insects chirping, there wasn't even the rustling of leaves. Everything was still.

My heart dropped as I heard the whispers. I turned slowly on the spot, desperately praying that it wasn't there. Though it was useless, of course it was there, there's no way I could outrun a God. The trees in front of me sizzled before melting away almost instantaneously, and before me stood the Faceless One.

I was sweating, tired and out of breath. And you can add damn terrified to the list too. It stood there, unmoving. I slowly backed away.

_Come on! Get it together! Teleport!_

But as hard as I tried, I was still there. I took another step back and suddenly I felt a tree against my back. The faceless One took a step closer,

_Why doesn't it just melt me like it did those trees? Or does it want to torture me first? _

Suddenly a dark shape blurred over my head and slammed straight into it. The Faceless One staggered back with the impact. It grabbed onto its attacker and flung it away. But it arched through the air and returned pushing the Faceless One back another step, before landing in front of it.

I stared in shock at the figure before me, and one word escaped my mouth.

"Valkyrie."


	41. Battle of the Gods

Darquesse laughed at her strength, the pure power that was running through her veins. She had just tackled a God, twice in fact, and now she was standing here, alive and well. As she always was. She had all the power of her true name at her disposal, and she was going to use it.

"Valkyrie."

Darquesse turned at the sound of the name, and saw the girl there, the teleporter who had opened the portal and summoned the God. She flashed a dark smile, it was thanks to this girl that she had a worthy opponent, Darquesse decided to thank her by leaving her in one piece.

The Faceless One clearly did not like being attacked, all it's other victims had died in mere seconds of its presence. It raised a hand and Darquesse felt her insides begin to melt, her skin dripped off and chunks of hair fell out.

The girl let out a scream, but Darquesse smiled with melted lips. She had to admit, this God had style. Melting people was one method she wanted to try next.

She set to work repairing her brain and heart, then other internal organs before fixing up her skin and replacing the hair, that wasn't as necessary, but she liked her hair and the way it shot out behind her as she flew.

"That was a good move and all." She said to the dark God standing before her. "But now it's my turn."

She pushed off the ground and flew at the God, hitting it in the stomach and lifting it with her. She set her hands alight, just to add to whatever pain the thing might be feeling. Did it even feel pain?

Once high enough, she dropped it. It fell back to the earth with a crash, sending out a wave of energy from where it landed. Darquesse descended until she hovered above the crater it had created. The God lay there, still in one piece.

She was delighted, it was still perfectly fine. Not a single scratch, this would be hard to kill. And she was up for the challenge.

The Faceless One stood up and looked at her. She could tell that it was as interested in her as she was of it. It walked forward slowly, she stood still. Curious to see its next move.

This time, the God made contact. It reached out and wrapped a hand around her neck, snapping bone and tearing flesh. She was lifted off the ground, and blood bubbled up out of her mouth. She reached out with both hands to mimic its actions. With all her strength she pulled, until she heard the satisfying crack of the neck disconnecting from the spine.

The Faceless One dropped her and she immediately healed herself. It's smooth blank face lay awkwardly on its shoulder, with one hand, it lifted the head until it sat straight.  
>She knew she was having an effect on it. She just had to kill it now, before it abandons its body for another. But the body was already dead, so how could she kill the thing inside it? Maybe this wouldn't be as fun as she thought.<p>

Darquesse cocked her head and looked at the God curiously.

"Can you even die? Is it possible without the sceptre?"

Maybe that was the answer. The sceptre, created by the Ancients using the black crystals that lay in the caves beneath Gordon Edgley's house. And she was a descendant of the Ancients after all…

"I'm tired of this fight." Darquesse said lazily. "I'll admit it was kind of fun at first, but you're body is already dead, and whatever you are inside- it's just not as amusing when you can't feel pain you know?"

The God stood still, no movement and no face to show that it even acknowledge her words.

"Guess not." Darquesse muttered, before turning to look at the girl still stupidly standing there. "Hey Sam, do me a favour?"

"You… how did… how are you even…?" she stumbled through her words

"Yeah, anyway. As a thank you for not killing you, can you keep this thing busy for a few minutes?"

"You want me to…" she said, dumbfounded, "Keep it busy?"

"Yeah, just for a few minutes, seconds tops. I just want to try something."

"I…"

"Thanks." And with that she took off into the air, the God went to follow. But the girl, Sam, seems to panic and threw a rock that bounced off its broken skull.

_That girl's stupider than I thought._ Darquesse thought to herself as she flew over the fields. _But she's pretty interesting._


	42. Suicide

_This is crazy. What am I doing? _ I ran through the trees, the Faceless God moving after me, but I didn't dare look back. I just kept my legs moving, my fists pumping, urging myself forward. _I must be out of my mind. _

_And what was going on with Valkyrie? I had no idea she was so powerful, but she wasn't acting like herself…_

At that moment a familiar figure came flying through the trees, his think skeletal frame crashed into mine but I felt his bony hands wrap around my waist and I was lifted off the ground.

"Skulduggery!" I cried out, then looked down. "You can fly?!"

"Are you ok?" he asked,

"Not really, kinda being chased by a murderous god at the moment." I replied, "But you AND Valkyrie can fly? You have to teach me."

"Now's not the time for that… wait, you saw Valkyrie fly?"

"Yeah, and she managed to fight off the God, but then she just took off."

Skulduggery landed, and looked around before speaking. "That wasn't Valkyrie, well it was and it wasn't. Long story. Where did she go?"

"I don't know, just… that way." I said pointing in the direction she took off in. "She said something about being bored with the fight and wanting to end it."

Skulduggery looked off into the direction I was pointing, "She can't mean…" he murmured, but was cut off by the crashing sounds of trees being uprooted and crushed. Bark flew through the air as the Faceless One stepped into the clearing.

"Uh Skulduggery… Shouldn't we be running?"

"Darq-… Valkyrie should be back soon. Let's just hope she can do this."

"Do what?"

The Faceless One stalked closer, even with no expression I could tell that it didn't like how Valkyrie had stood against it so easily. The God raised its hand and fire swept around us in a semi-circle, trapping us in. Skulduggery raised his own hand to stop the flames spreading towards us.

"Come on Valkyrie" I whispered, "What are you doing?"

As if in answer, Valkyrie returned. She landed forcefully on the ground between us and the God, the ground cracking with the impact. She looked up and grinned.

"This should be interesting."

Something was shining in her hand. I noticed she was holding small black crystals, one in each hand, they seemed to crackle with energy in the presence of the Faceless One. The Dark God must have seen them to because it took a step back. It actually seemed _afraid_.

"Should I throw it?" she said to herself, "Or tear of its head and shove it down his throat?" then she looked back at us, "what do you think skull boy?"

"Personally I don't mind, as long as it works, and if Valkyrie comes back afterwards." Skulduggery replied.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked, "Valkyrie is standing right there."

"No. She isn't." Skulduggery said quietly, "Or rather she is, but… I guess you could call this her alter-ego."

"The names Darquesse." She said with a smile, "And seeing as it's my _true_ name, wouldn't that make Valkyrie the alter-ego?"

"That's the mystery." Skulduggery said

"You know, I think I liked the second option better." Darquesse said, "I'll tear its head off."

She dug her heels into the dirt and then launched herself at the God, punching it across the jaw with her fist that was still clamped around the mysterious gemstone. The Gods head rocked backwards with the impact. _Where these stones giving her some kind of power?_

Suddenly Darquesse was behind the God, her legs wrapped around its torso, pinning the arms to its body. She grinned, then pressed the black crystal against the skin of its arm, the flesh seemed to sizzle and burn off, black lightening crackled around the stone and the arm of the God exploded off from its body.

The God began to shake, not the kind of shaking you would do if you were scared or cold, I mean like epileptic fit shaking. Its body was convulsing and contortioning.

"The God is going to leave its vessel." Skulduggery said, worry creeping into his velvety voice

"Too late" Darquesse said with a grin, and in one fluid movement she snapped the head round and dropped one of the crystals down the gaping bloody hole.

For a second I thought it hadn't worked, but then the body of the Faceless One began to degrade, it's skin cracked and crumbled, then it exploded in a bright flash of black lightening. Skulduggery pulled me back and held up his hands, creating a shield of dense air. The smoke cleared and Skulduggery lowered his hands. There was now nothing left but a charred patch on the ground where the Faceless One once stood, and Valkyrie, lying in a heap not far from where the God had met its demise.

"Valkyrie!" Skulduggery cried as he rushed to her side, he lifted her head and she groaned. "Did the lightening hit you?"

"It _is_ Valkyrie now right?" I asked tentatively

"It is." Skulduggery said

"What… What happened?" Valkyrie said, opening her eyes to see us standing over her.

"You don't remember?" I asked,

"Remember wha… oh." She said, as her memory came back to her, she looked down at her hands that were covered in the blood of the man who used to be Syrrian Camorra. "ew."

"Are you hurt?" Skulduggery asked.

"I'm fine." She said as she got to her feet, "Just got knocked back by the blast wave. Did I really just go head to head with a Faceless One and win?"

"With the help of those crystals." Skulduggery added

"Well yeah but come on, that's kinda awesome."

Skulduggery looked at her. "Great power like that comes with a cost."

"I know I know, I'm not saying I want to go full Darquesse, I'm just saying it was pretty cool." She said sheepishly.

"It was pretty cool." I agreed.

"And then there's you." Skulduggery said, "I guess you know our little secret now, and I hope you won't mind keeping it a secret?"

"Why? Do you think people will come after you if they find out you're so powerful?"

"Something like that."


End file.
